Calcutta High Court refuses to initiate a suo moto proceedings against Advocate General S.N Mookherjee for allegedly 'misleading the Court'

The Calcutta High Court bench of Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava, and Justice Kesang Doma Bhutia, has recently declined to initiate a suo moto proceedings against Advocate General S.N Mookherjee for allegedly 'misleading the Court,'

It is alleged that the Advocate General whilst clarifying the decision in respect of election of Howrah Municipal Corporation had initially stated that a bill was passed by the State Legislative Assembly bifurcating the Howrah Municipal Corporation into Howrah Municipal Corporation and Bally Municipal Corporation and that bill was pending before the Hon’ble Governor but later on he had stated that the Bill had received the assent of the Hon’ble Governor.

The Court was adjudicating upon a batch of petitions questioning as to why the Howrah Municipal Corporation has been excluded from the election schedule notified on December 28, 2021.

Advocate General has tendered unconditional apology for making an incorrect statement before the Court on 23.12.2021. He submitted that the incorrect statement was made before this Court because of some misunderstanding of instructions on his part.

The State further has sought the modification of the Order dated 23.12.2021 stating that the Advocate General had made the above statement on the basis of misunderstanding of instructions given to him.

It has been clarified that the Bally Municipality has been constituted as per the provisions of West Bengal Municipal Act, 1993 vide notification dated 12th February, 2021 after exclusion of part of area from Howrah Municipal Corporation by passing a resolution in West Bengal Legislative Assembly. The West Bengal Legislative Assembly has adopted a resolution in this regard and Schedule 1 (Schedule) of the Act has been amended accordingly by issuing a notification, but Howrah Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill 2021 relating to Amendment of Clause (a) of Sub-Section (1) and Sub Section (2) of Section 5 of the Howrah Municipal Corporation Act, 1980 is pending before the Hon’ble Governor for his consideration under Article 200 of the Constitution of India and the assent of the Hon’ble Governor has not been received.

Thus the Court while dismissing the prayed observed that, "having regard to the fact that a bona fide mistake of making incorrect statement was made by the learned Advocate General, we are not inclined to initiate the suo moto proceedings against the Advocate General or any other authority."

Thus the Court accepted the unconditional apology tendered by the Learned Advocate General amended the Order dated 23.12.2021 and further took on record that the assent of Hon’ble Governor in the Howrah Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2021 is awaited.

In related matter, Sabyasachi Chatterjee appearing on behalf of the petitioners, submitted before the Court today that the dates for Howrah Municipal Election has still not been announced. To this, the respondent submitted that the election has been deferred in accordance with the guidance of the Court. Thus, time has been allowed for the same in the matter.

Mousumi Roy Vs. The West Bengal State Election Commission & Ors.