HC slaps Rs.5 lakh fine on Didi for crying bias

Kolkata: In a landmark judgment, the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for “putting the judiciary in a bad light.”'

Justice Kausik Chanda who heard the recusal petition filed by the Chief Minister — who questioned his impartiality on the grounds that prior to be sworn in as a High Court Judge he was related to the BJP — imposed the fine of Rs 5 lakh for questioning the integrity of judiciary. He directed, the funds thus realized would be used by the families of the lawyers who had been affected by the corona pandemic.

Justice Chanda was hearing the original petition filed by the Chief Minister who challenged the counting of the Nandigram Assembly polls. She had lost to defendant Suvendu Adhikari by a margin of about 1,900 votes.

The case was listed for hearing in the Bench of Justice Chanda. Subsequently Banerjee filed a petition asking for shifting of the Bench on the grounds of conflict of interest and judicial bias.

She objected to Justice Chanda hearing her petition citing “likelihood of bias due to associations he had with the BJP during his days as a



lawyer.”'

Expressing his strong displeasure over the issue, the Judge who left the case said, “The unfortunate part is that the letter written to the acting Chief Justice (by the petitioner) was leaked with highly confidential contents maligning me.”

He further said, “I am unable to convince myself that there is a conflict of interest. The applicant has taken too somber a view of the integrity of a Judge. However, I am going to recues myself from hearing the case, …  A deliberate or conscious attempt was made to affect my judgment.”

The Court said that the decision of recusal was taken so that “trouble-mongers” don't get an “opportunity to keep the controversy alive… It will be contrary to the interests of justice if such unwarranted problem continues along with trial.”

The matter was likely to be referred to acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal who could then assign it to some other Bench.

Banerjee’s advocate Sanjay Basu later said that the petitioner would prefer an appeal. “We will take steps to challenge that and I am sure we will be successful,” he said.