Judge Exits Case, Fines Mamata Banerjee Rs 5 Lakh: “Move To Malign Judge”

New Delhi/ Kolkata:

Mamata Banerjee was in the present day fined Rs 5 lakh by Calcutta Excessive Court docket decide Kaushik Chanda, who exited a case involving her petition difficult the election of the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari. The Bengal Chief Minister had requested the decide to stop the case over “battle of curiosity”.

Earlier than exiting the case, the decide made a collection of offended observations, accusing Ms Banerjee of a “preplanned transfer to malign a decide” and of violating her constitutional responsibility.

Mamata Banerjee wished the case to be re-assigned to a special courtroom as she alleged Justice Chanda has hyperlinks with the BJP and can be biased.

In a letter to the Chief Justice of the Calcutta Excessive Court docket on June 16, Ms Banerjee had given two causes for her request.

Justice Kaushik Chanda was related to the BJP up to now, Ms Banerjee’s letter mentioned, and due to this fact there was “cheap apprehension of bias… in favour of the respondent…”, who can be from the BJP.

Ms Banerjee additionally mentioned she “moderately apprehends probability of bias” as a result of in April she had objected to Justice Chanda’s affirmation as a everlasting decide at Calcutta Excessive Court docket.

“… it can result in a scenario and notion whereby the Honourable Decide, in adjudicating the matter, could also be mentioned to be ‘decide in his personal trigger’,” the Chief Minister wrote in her letter.

“Justice should not solely be finished; it should even be seen to be finished,” she added, as she underlined the necessity to “maintain the arrogance of the general public within the judiciary”.