“Maligning a judge, an attempt to silence independent judiciary”: Lawyer seeks Contempt action against TMC’s Ashok Kumar Deb
Supreme Court Advocate Shoumendu Mukherji today has written a letter to Attorney General of India KK Venugopal seeking consent to initiate contempt proceedings against Mr Ashok Kumar Deb, Chairman Bar Council of West Bengal over his derogatory and disparaging remarks relating to acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal of Calcutta High Court in a letter addressed to Chief Justice of India dated June 25, 2021.
“History is replete with instances whenever political functionaries have attempted to deride judicial sanctity to further their own political gains, the people of India have pulled them down from their high horses. Another attempt seems to be in the making in the correspondence that is the subject matter of this letter,” the letter states.
Advocate Shoumendu Mukherjee in his letter has also said that, “Maligning a judge, that to an Acting Chief Justice attuning political colour to his actions without any basis is an attempt to silence the discharge of an independent judiciary that is showing a mirror to the State Government on its inactions failing to rein in breakdown of law and order especially in the aftermath of the recently concluded Assembly elections.”
“It is apparently clear that the indiscriminate utterances made by the Chairman of the Bar Council of West Bengal against Hon’ble Justice Bindal misusing and depreciating the office and prestige of the Bar Council were made with the intention to cause serious prejudice to the un-withered, courageous functioning of the Hon’ble High Court in an environment of fear caused by large scale human rights and fundamental rights violation in the State, in a clear attempt to subvert the majesty of law by attacking both the administrative and judicial wings. The courts exist for the people. The courts cherish the faith reposed in them by people,” the letter further adds.
In support of the same, Advocate Shoumendu in his letter has also mentioned about the fact that the Ld. Chairman who is the sole signatory of the letter is a six- time MLA belonging to the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) which is the ruling political party in West Bengal.
Further his letter also mentions about the the incident dated 27th June 2021 wherein four members of the very same Bar Council of West Bengal namely Mr. Kailash Tamoli, Mr. Samir Paul, Mr. Rabindranath Bhattacharya and Mr. Mihir Das had clarified in a separate correspondence addressed to the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India stated that the Ld. Chairman Mr. Deb acted on his own without consulting the elected members of the Bar Council of West Bengal and further stated that the ruling dispensation has been using the office of the Bar Council of West Bengal, its letter pad, and its seal as a party office and to hype political thoughts.
It is pertinent to mention that a request was also made to the Advocate General of West Bengal Mr. Kishore Datta to initiate Contempt proceedings against the TMC MLA and Chairperson of Bar Council of West Bengal, Advocate Ashok Kumar Deb with regards to the same letter on June 30, 2021.