New Delhi: Calcutta high court judge Justice Kaushik Chanda recused from hearing Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s challenge to the results in the Nandigram assembly seat, imposing a cost of Rs 5 lakhs on the Trinamool Congress chief for the “manner in which the application for recusal was moved.”
Banerjee had moved court after having lost the Nandigram seat to Bharatiya Janata Party’s Suvendu Adhikari by a narrow margin. When the case went to this particular judge’s bench, Banerjee alleged that Justice Chanda is an “active member of the BJP” till his appointment as the Additional Solicitor General of India in 2015 and asked for the case to be assigned to another judge as he was likely to be “biased”.
In a letter to the secretary of the acting chief justice of the Calcutta high court, Banerjee’s counsel Sanjay Basu had said the chief minister had already “conveyed her objections and reservations” about Justice Chanda’s confirmation as permanent judge, and so there was “reasonable apprehension…of bias”.
LiveLaw has reported that Justice Chanda, which recusing himself, observed that it was “preposterous to think that a judge will not be able to do his duty without a sense of detachment.”
“Persons involved in this case belong to higher strata of State politics. Some opportunists have already emerged. These trouble-mongers will try to keep the controversy alive if I don’t recuse. Trial before this Bench will be rendered impossible. It will be contrary to the interests of justice if such unwarranted problem continues along with trial. Such attempts need to be thwarted at the threshold. Hearing of this case should proceed seamlessly like any other litigation. This case stands released from my list,” he said.
He also held that Banerjee’s objection to his elevation as permanent judge is irrelevant here and in turn objected to the release of Banerjee’s “highly confidential” opinion on the judge.
Justice Chanda had earlier said that he was never a convenor of the BJP Legal Cell, as had been claimed, but had appeared in many cases representing the party before the Calcutta high court.
The matter will be referred to Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal for assigning it to a different bench.