News Analysis India

Tag: Calcutta High Court

  • Charge sheet filed in student leader death case; no murder clause included: Bengal cop

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Almost four-and-a-half months after student leader Anis Khan died under mysterious circumstances, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the West Bengal Police on Monday filed a charge sheet, naming five policemen, a senior officer said.

    According to the police officer, no murder clause, however, has been included in the charge sheet that was filed before an Uluberia court near here.

    “The charge sheet has names of five policemen, including the officer-in charge of Amta police station. The accused in the case have been charged with death by negligence (Section 304A), illegal obstruction (Section 341), illegal detention (Section 342), forcible entry (Section 452), criminal conspiracy (Section 120B),” the officer said.

    Meanwhile, unhappy over the exclusion of murder charges, the student leader’s father, Salem Khan, said that he would move the Calcutta High Court.

    Salem Khan had alleged that his son was thrown off the third floor of their home by four men, including one in khaki uniform, on February 19.

    The state had ordered the formation of a special investigation team to probe the matter.

  • Calcutta HC upholds single bench orders of CBI probe into ‘illegal’ appointments in aided schools

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: A division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday upheld orders of a single bench that directed CBI to inquire into alleged illegal appointments given by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education on recommendations by the School Service Commission (SSC).

    Immediately after the division bench order, a single bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay directed state minister Partha Chatterjee to appear before the Central Bureau of Investigation at its office here before 6pm of Wednesday in connection with the SSC appointments scam.

    The judge said that he expects Chatterjee to step down as minister in the interest of justice. Terming “irregularities” in recommending appointments of teaching and non-teaching staff by SSC as a “public scam”, the division bench, comprising justices Subrata Talukder and AK Mukherjee, said that the single bench of Justice Gangopadhyay was not wrong in ordering a probe into the alleged money trail involved.

    The division bench said the orders of the single bench require no intervention.

    Holding that a five-member committee to oversee the appointment process for a 2016 panel for recruitment of teachers for classes 9 and 10 and group C and D staff in government-aided schools was illegal, the single bench had ordered then state education minister to appear before the CBI.

    Chatterjee was the state education minister when the alleged appointments were made. He is now the industry, commerce and parliamentary affairs minister of the Mamata Banerjee cabinet.

    Earlier, the minister was directed by Justice Gangopadhyay to appear before the Central Bureau of Investigation at its office in Nizam Palace here on April 12, but he got a stay from a division bench on the order.

    Seven orders were passed by the single bench directing CBI to enquire into the alleged irregularities in the appointments of teaching and non-teaching staff. Of these, one was in group C, two in group D appointments and four in teachers’ recruitment for classes 9 and 10.

    All these orders had earlier been stayed by the division bench on a series of appeals.

    Passing judgment on the appeals, the division bench accepted recommendations of Justice RK Bag committee, instituted by the court earlie calling for prosecution of the then senior officials connected to the scam.

  • HC directs CBI to interrogate Bengal minister over appointment of daughter as teacher

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed West Bengal Minister of State for Education Paresh Chandra Adhikari to appear before the CBI here over alleged appointment of his daughter as a teacher in a state government-aided school in Cooch Behar district.

    The order was passed on a petition by a candidate who claimed that she was deprived of the job despite having secured higher marks than the minister’s daughter in the recruitment examination for teachers.

    Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay directed the minister to appear before the CBI authorities in Kolkata by Tuesday evening.

    Adhikari, who was in Cooch Behar, told reporters that he has left for Kolkata along with his daughter following the high court order.

    The minister is an MLA from Mekhliganj constituency in Cooch Behar.

    The court directed the CBI to file a report on the matter on May 7, when it will be taken up for hearing again.

    The petitioner’s lawyer Firdous Shamim claimed that she had secured 77 marks in the examination while the minister’s daughter got 61, and that her name did not figure in the merit list, but had been given appointment as a teacher depriving the petitioner Babita Sarkar.

    Justice Gangopadhyay had earlier on four occasions ordered CBI inquiry in connection with alleged irregularities in appointments of teaching and non-teaching staff in state government-aided schools.

  • 2.34 lakh cases pending at Calcutta HC, 41 per cent judges’ posts vacant

    By PTI

    Functioning with only 39 judges out of a sanctioned strength of 72 judges, the Calcutta High Court is saddled with more than two lakh pending cases.

    The Union Law and Justice Ministry on Saturday announced the appointment of three more additional judges to the Calcutta High Court, which will take the number to 42.

    Legal luminaries say that the number of judges needs to be increased further as soon as possible to deal with the backlog as well as newly filed petitions.

    A total of 2,34,539 cases are pending before the high court despite efforts by the judiciary to reduce the backlog.

    The Calcutta High Court, which has a sanctioned strength of 72 judges, is functioning with only 39 judges, according to data provided on its website.

    After the three newly-appointed judges take oath, the number will increase to 42, but will still remain short of the sanctioned strength by 30 or 41.66 per cent.

    Former Supreme Court judge Justice (retd) Ashok Ganguly said that the number of judges should be increased immediately to at least the full strength of the high court, and the sub-divisional and district courts, which are also facing similar issues.

    Of the 2,34,539 cases pending as on February 28 according to the data, civil cases form the lion’s share at 1,97,184, while the number of criminal cases awaiting disposal stand at 37,355 on that date.

    While the seat of the high court is in Kolkata, it has permanent circuit benches at Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar Islands and at Jalpaiguri in north Bengal.

    “Even with full strength, the number of judges is inadequate and so with over 40 per cent less it is far more difficult to reduce the backlog,” Ganguly said.

    He said that the number of new cases before the court is increasing as people have nowhere else to go for getting justice.

    “Number of cases is increasing while judges’ strength is going down; governments need to expedite appointments of new judges,” he said.

    Holding that both the central and state governments need to put in more effort to alleviate the situation, Ganguly said there are huge vacancies in the lower judiciary also, which need to be filled up.

    A total of 26,64,284 cases are pending in different courts in West Bengal till May 14, as per the National Judicial Data Grid.

    Of these, 20,47,901 are criminal, while 6,16,383 are civil cases, according to the data. Ganguly said that litigants are facing immense hardship owing to the situation leading from lack of an adequate number of judges and huge pendency of cases.

    He said that lawyers also need to put in extra effort to ensure that litigants get justice in time.

    Calcutta High Court Bar Association president Arunabha Ghosh said that owing to the inadequate strength of the bench, a situation has also arisen where judges are not always getting jurisdiction as per their specialisation.

    Jurisdiction of a judge is the discretion of the Chief Justice which denotes the subjects on which a judge will hear petitions.

    “Many recommendations of the high court collegium which have also been passed by the Supreme Court collegium are pending before the Union Law and Justice ministry,” he said, maintaining these require to be acted upon faster.

    Claiming that more than 200 posts of judges in high courts across the country are vacant, Ghosh called for immediate filling up of these posts for speedy disposal of cases.

    Holding that the number of service judges needs to be increased in the lower judiciary, he also called for more concerted efforts by all the stakeholders to fast-track the justice delivery system.

    A joint conference of chief ministers and chief justices of high courts was held on April 30 in New Delhi to discuss creation of frameworks for simple and convenient delivery of justice.

  • Legal battle going on in Calcutta HC for 150 years and growing old

    Express News Service

    KOLKATA:  Believe it or not, a legal battle has been going on in the Calcutta High Court for the past 150 years. Said to be the longest-heard legal matter in the country, the litigation has its origin in 1872 when the British colonial law was reigning supreme. The original petition related to Rani Rashmoni’s Arpan-nama (dedication of deeds) for the running of Dakshiineshwar temple, which receives devotees from all over the country. 

    Philanthropist and founder of the temple Rashmoni had, a day before her death in 1861, appointed five persons as sebaits to run the temple.  She had signed the deed in the presence of six witnesses and it was registered in Alipore court six months after her death.

    In 1872, two of the sebaits petitioned before a British judge of the high court that the deed doesn’t mention the rules and regulations to run the temple. After hearing the case for 40 years, the court in 1912 chalked out a scheme to run the temple’s affairs and in 1929, the court instructed to issue a new guideline and form a board of trustees to run the temple.

    As the number of sebaits of the temple crossed more than 200, the case was again heard in 1972 to decide their voting rights in electing the board of trustees. The court passed an order in 1986 saying the election would be held every three years under the supervision of a court-appointed officer.

    The case was again placed before the court in 2021 in which it was claimed that the head of the board was being elected for the past 35 years keeping the sebaits in dark. The case is being heard on the basis of the original petitions by the two sebaits in 1872.

    Additions to the trailing litigationThe records available with the HC show that the case is being heard on the basis of the original petitions of 1872. The latest addition to the dispute is that the head of the trustee board was being elected for the past 35 years keeping the sebaits in dark

  • Bangladesh envoy taken for a ride in name of Bollywood singer event

    By Express News Service

    KOLKATA:  The Bangladesh deputy high commissioner in Kolkata was cheated of Rs 8 lakh by fraudsters who promised a musical soiree of Bollywood singer Shreya Ghoshal in Dhaka. The incident came to light when artist Chirantan Bandopadhyay, also duped of Rs 20 lakh by the same group of fraudsters, moved the Calcutta High Court. The artist went to  court after the police failed to make any headway.

    The plot to dupe the two parties unfolded in January, a police officer said. ‘’The suspects created a fictitious organisation using the name of a genuine company. They defrauded the deputy high commission’s office of Rs 8 lakh as advance. The money was sent to the  account of one Krishna Sharma, the director of the fictitious company. The deputy high commission received acknowledgement message from a fake e-mail ID and WhatsApp number of Shreya Ghoshal,’’ said the officer.

    The message informed that the singer would reach Bangladesh a day before the scheduled event for which two rooms in a five-star hotel were requested. ‘’The deputy high commissioner’s office tried to contact the fictitious organisation before the event to a get final confirmation but their e-mails and messages went unanswered,” police said.

  • CBI files before Calcutta HC probe progress reports in Birbhum killings, TMC leader’s murder

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: The CBI on Monday submitted before the Calcutta High Court probe progress reports in the Birbhum arson case, which left 10 people dead, and the murder of TMC panchayat deputy chief Bhadu Sheikh that allegedly led to the killings.

    A division bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice R Bharadwaj, which ordered a CBI probe into the two incidents, had directed the agency to file the progress reports on the investigations on May 2.

    The bench had on March 25 ordered that the probe into the March 21 violence at Bogtui in Birbhum district be handed over to CBI from the West Bengal government-appointed special investigation team.

    It had subsequently on April 8 ordered that the investigation in the murder of Bhadu Sheikh be also handed over to the CBI from the state police, observing that the second incident prima facie seems to be the fall out of the murder of Sheikh.

    Ten people, including women and children, died after miscreants set fire to houses in Bogtui village on March 21.

    The massacre happened shortly after Sheikh was killed.

  • Suspended by Speaker, five West Bengal BJP MLAs including Suvendu Adhikari move Calcutta HC

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Five BJP MLAs, including Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, on Wednesday filed petitions before the Calcutta High Court challenging their suspension from the West Bengal Assembly by Speaker Biman Banerjee.

    One of their lawyers said that the petitions are likely to be heard before the appropriate bench of the high court soon. The five BJP MLAs were suspended by the Speaker for future sessions this year for their alleged unruly conduct in the House on March 28, the last day of the Budget session.

    Besides Adhikari, the other MLAs include Dipak Burman, Shankar Ghosh, Manoj Tigga, and Narahari Mahato.

    The assembly had witnessed pandemonium on the day as ruling TMC and BJP MLAs scuffled after saffron party legislators demanded a statement by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the “worsening” law and order situation in the state.

  • Teacher recruitment scam: HC extends stay on order summoning Bengal minister to appear before CBI

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: In a temporary relief to senior West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court Wednesday extended a stay for four weeks on an earlier order that directed him to appear before the CBI in connection with a petition alleging irregularities in appointment of assistant teachers in state government-aided schools.

    The division bench comprising Justices Subrata Talukder and A K Mukherjee also refused to accept the resignation of Justice (retired) R K Bag from the chairmanship of a committee appointed earlier by another division bench of the court to inquire into the allegations, and requested it to complete investigation in Group C-post appointments.

    The panel has already submitted its report on the probe into Group-D appointments.

    The bench directed that the stay granted by it on an order of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay that asked Partha Chatterjee to appear before the CBI by Tuesday evening will continue for four weeks from Wednesday.

    The bench also directed the Bag Committee to submit its report by May 13, when the matter will come up for hearing again.

    Chatterjee was the state education minister when the alleged appointments were made.

  • Birbhum killings: HC asks Delhi CFSL to collect samples from site of incident, orders govt to file report

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed CFSL Delhi to immediately collect necessary materials for forensic examination at Bogtui village in Bengal’s Birbhum district, where at least eight people were charred to death in the suspected fallout of a TMC panchayat official’s murder.

    The court asked the state government to file a report in the case before it by 2 pm on Thursday, when the matter will be taken up for hearing again.

    A division bench headed by Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava, taking up a suo motu petition and a set of PILs, ordered that CCTVs be installed at the crime scene in the presence of district judge, Purba Bardhaman, and recordings be done until further orders.

    The bench, also comprising justice R Bharadwaj, directed a team of Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) in Delhi to visit the place of incident and collect samples for examination without any delay.

    It asked the DGP to ensure safety of witnesses, including that of a minor boy injured in the arson, in consultation with the district judge, Purba Bardhaman.

    The court observed that suo motu petition has been registered for fair investigation in the case.

    The petitioners in the PILs have prayed for a probe by the CBI or by any other agency which is not controlled by the state.

    Advocate general representing the government opposed the prayer, stating an SIT was probing the matter and that there was no need to transfer the case to any other agency.