Mamata Banerjee files plea before bench of Justice Kausik Chanda, asking him to recuse from hearing the Nandigram petition

  • Lawbeat News Network
  • 07:45 AM, 24 Jun 2021

Read Time: 05 minutes

Following a letter to the Calcutta High Court, in which the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has said alleged a likelihood of "bias" if Justice Kaushik Chanda, an additional judge in the Calcutta high court hears her petition challenging the election of BJP's Suvendhu Adhikari from Nandigram in the assembly election, she has now filed a plea before him, asking the Judge to recuse himself from the case, ANI Reported.

A day before the verdict of Nandigram recounting case at Calcutta High Court, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had appealed to Justice Kaushik Chanda to leave this case, according to the Free Press Journal.

In a letter to the secretary of the acting chief justice of the Calcutta high court, the CM had “conveyed her objections and reservations” about Justice Chanda’s confirmation as permanent judge. 

The letter said that Justice Chanda was an active member of the BJP before he became a judge.

"My client has filed the election petition challenging the election of Suvendu Adhikari, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The adjudication of election petition shall also have political ramifications. My client has been made aware that Justice Chanda was an active member of the BJP. Thus, in the event the Hon'ble judge takes up the election petition, there will be reasonable apprehension in my client's mind of bias on the part of the Hon'ble judge in favour of the Respondent and/ or against my client," 
- Banerjee's letter stated

Further to this, the Chief Minister had stated that, “Justice must not only be done but also seen to be done. In the aforesaid circumstances, in order to sustain the confidence of public in the judiciary, the aforesaid election petition out to be reassigned."

It is pertinent to note that on Monday, Justice Aniruddha Bose of the Supreme Court recused himself from hearing the case related to Narada scam. The bench, also comprising Justice Hemant Gupta, requested CJI NV Ramana to see if another bench could be set up to hear matter the same day.

Last week, Supreme Court judge, Justice Indira Banerjee had recused from hearing the pleas seeking an SIT/CBI’s probe into the death of 2 BJP Activist(s) Avijit Sarkar & booth worker Haran Adhikari & other large scale incidents of violence unleashed allegedly, at the behest of All India Trinamool Congress supporters.

The matter was listed before the vacation bench of Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice MR Shah, however when the same was called out, Justice Banerjee said, “I have some difficulty. I cannot hear this matter”, she had stated.