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Justice Kausik Chanda of Calcutta High Court has reserved judgment on plea by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seeking his recusal, on account of reservations of “bias” projected against the Judge for his political affiliations prior to Judgeship.

While hearing  the plea argued by Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Justice Chanda expressed that if he were to recuse himself, it will mean that he has given in to “media trial”, even though he himself has been deciding on petitions concerning the menace of media trials.

Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for the Chief Minister said,

“Your lordship will only be putting themselves at an elevated pedestal by recusing themself from hearing this case… Even Supreme Court judges have recused themselves from hearing certain cases concerning the State.”

Singhvi added that if Justice Chanda chose not to recuse himself in light of the social media mandate by various AITC leaders, he may attract more criticism.

“Two Supreme Court judges have recused themselves as well from hearing petitions concerning the state of West Bengal,” said Singhvi.

Singhvi further delved into the instances of the Judge appearing for BJP when he was a lawyer.

To this, Justice Chanda replied “You are a congressman, Advocate Mookherjee is from BJP &  you are appearing for an AITC official.”

 

Singhvi argued that Judgeship was beyond that, “this is divine work,” he added, thrusting upon the need for recusal.

Justice Chanda also added that the issue should have been raised on June 18 itself, when the issue was first taken up.

"Let me think over it," he said.

 

Following a letter to the Calcutta High Court, in which the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had 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 had 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.