Plea in Calcutta High Court seeks a direction to AG to decide on permission to initiate contempt proceedings against Chairman of West Bengal Bar Council
A petition has been filed before the Calcutta High Court assailing the omission on the part of the Advocate General in giving a decision on application seeking consent for initiating criminal contempt proceedings against Chairman of Bar council of West Bengal, Ashok Kumar Deb.
The petition has been filed by Vijay Kumar Singhal who has said that on June 30, 2021 he had sent an email to the Advocate General of the State West Bengal seeking permission for initiation of criminal contempt against Chairman of Bar Council of West Bengal, Mr. Ashok Kumar Deb for sending a letter dated June 25, 2021 to the Chief Justice of India and circulating the same on social media, the contents of which amount to contempt of Court under Section 2(c) of the Contempt of Courts.
The petitioner has said that he received no reply from the Advocate General on the said letter after which another letter was written by the petitioner to the Advocate General to take note of the aforesaid letter and to expeditiously arrive at a decision.
However, the petitioner received no reply from the Advocate General even for the second letter.
The petitioner has argued that he cannot initiate contempt proceedings without the consent of the Advocate General which is an administrative or quasi-judicial exercise of power.
It has been further argued that “it is a trite proposition of law that one has the right to know the outcome of an exercise of discretion, so that one can understand whether one possesses or does not possess the rights sought to be claimed before the administrative authority and act accordingly."
The petitioner has thus argued that he has the right to initiate contempt proceedings against the Chairman of Bar Council of West Bengal. Moreover the omission on the part of the Advocate General in giving a decision on whether the petitioner have the right to initiate contempt proceedings against against Deb is an infringement of the legal right.
The petitioner has thus sought a direction in the nature of a writ of mandamus to compel the Advocate General to arrive at a decision expeditiously.
Case Title: Vijay Kumar Singhal vs the Advocate General of the State of West Bengal