HC hauls up CPM trio for contempt

Legal Correspondent
The Statesman, 28 November

KOLKATA, Nov. 27: The Division Bench of Chief Justice Mr SS Nijjar and Mr Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose of Calcutta High Court today issued a criminal contempt notice against the CPI-M state secretary, Mr Biman Bose, and the party’s central committee members, Mr Benoy Konar and Mr Shyamal Chakravarty (photographs on the right), for the allegedly derogatory remarks they made against the judiciary after the High Court had delivered judgment in the Nandigram carnage case, saying that the police firing in Nandigram on 14 March was wholly unconstitutional and unjustified.
Addressing a party rally, Mr Bose had said that democracy was threatened when one of its pillars, the judiciary, crossed its limits.

“If the court decided everything what was the use of the executive or the legislature in a democracy ? A democracy could not be run like that.” It was Mr Bose’s second brush with the judiciary. On an earlier occasion when he wasn’t the party state secretary, he had incurred the displeasure of the judiciary by making derogatory remarks on Mr Justice Amitabha Lala for his curbs on processions. However, Mr Bose then pleaded that his remarks weren’t directed against the judge, but the judgment.

Mr Shyamal Chakravarty asked if there was any point in ordering a CBI inquiry into the Nandigram firing after the High Court had made up its mind and held that the firing was unjustified. He found it strange that the plight of the CPI-M supporters from Nandigram, compelled to flee their homes, could elicit no sympathy from the Governor but the CPI-M's recapture of Nandigram happened to be abhorrent enough to dampen the ardour of Deepabali for Mr Gopalkrishna Gandhi. The Governor's heart did not bleed when 27 of the CPI-M activists were killed over the past 11 months in Nandigram.

Mr Chakravarty quoted Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: “I can endure your brutality, not your hypocrisy.” Commenting on the police firing, Mr Konar said it was not the job of the police to paint or act. The honourable judge must be aware that policemen escorting him carried revolvers too. It was part of their job. Mr Konar called the Governor the Trinamul's flag-bearer. He asked the Governor to openly act like a politician if that was what he really wanted to do. He was a free citizen and he could carry the flag of the Trinamul Congress.

The Division Bench issued the contempt notice on the applications of the High Court Bar Association, Bar Library Club and the Incorporated Law Society. Mr Sakti Nath Mukherjee appeared for the Bar Association and Mr Jayanta Mitra appeared for the Bar Library Club.

The matter will come up for hearing after Christmas vacation.