The commotion broke out a day after Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay asked former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee to be present before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) before 5.30 pm on Tuesday.
Kolkata: Moments after pro-Trinamool Congress (TMC) lawyers engaged in a ruckus outside Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay’s courtroom in the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar urged Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for a meeting over the “disturbing scenario”.
The commotion broke out a day after Gangopadhyay asked former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee to be present before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) before 5.30 pm on Tuesday in connection with a probe into the alleged “irregularities” in the Group D and assistant teacher recruitment process of the state school education department.
However, a division bench of Justices Subrata Talukder and Anand Kumar Mukherjee stayed the order and gave Chatterjee respite from appearing before the central agency. On Wednesday, the division bench further extended the stay by four weeks.
On Wednesday, according to reports, Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava left his court in the middle of hearing of matters and held an urgent meeting on the protests with senior lawyers, barristers, representatives of the three bars of the high court, advocate general and two assistant solicitors general. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Bar Association, Bar Library Club and Incorporated Law Society.
Criticising the protests by the lawyers, Bar Association president Arunabha Ghosh, said, “What has happened in the High Court since Tuesday is unprecedented. The Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court called me and I said, ‘You have to take action against this’. If anybody does not like the judgment of any judge, they can appeal to a higher court, even the Supreme Court. But, this type of hooliganism cannot be tolerated.”
Later in a tweet, Dhankar said, “WB Guv has urged CM Mamata Banerjee for interaction during the day in view of disturbing and unprecedented worrisome scenario in the precincts of High Court at Calcutta as also the recent spate of heinous crime against women and continual deteriorating law & order in the State.”
He added, “You would agree that in a system governed by constitution and rule of law, denial of access to justice and obstruction in the functioning of the Courts sounds death knell of democracy.”
