West Bengal Bar Council Chairman seeks removal of State Hig Court Acting CJ

The Bar Council of West Bengal has written to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) seeking the removal of Justice Rajesh Bindal, the Acting Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court.

The letter, written by advocate Ashok Kumar Deb, chairman of the Bar Council of West Bengal and Trinamool MLA, alleged that there had been “instances which have given rise to a perception that Hon’ble Justice Bindal is an unfair, partial and biased judge and whose continuance at the Hon’ble High Court interferes with the fair and impartial dispensation of justice”.

In the June 25 letter, Deb, who is also a Trinamool Congress MLA, wrote, “Soon after being transferred to the Calcutta High Court, Justice Bindal was appointed as the Acting Chief Justice. According to the published news regarding the letter, it is mentioned, ‘On and from his date of appointment…there have been numerous instances that have forced us to issue the instant letter praying for the removal of his Lordship as a Judge from the Calcutta High Court…”

Referring to the case in which Mamata Banerjee challenged the victory of Suvendu Adhikari in the recently-concluded Assembly elections, Deb wrote that the case, which was supposed to have been heard by Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, was “snatched away” by Justice Bindal and assigned to Justice Kausik Chanda, who, according to Deb, “has a longstanding association with the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party]”.

The letter said: “We beseech your Lordship to take immediate steps for removal of Hon’ble Justice Rajesh Bindal as a Judge of Calcutta High Court so that the majesty and sanctity of the Calcutta High Court is upheld and to ensure people’s confidence in the judiciary does not fall to pieces.”

Deb wrote that unless steps were taken to remove Justice Bindal, “we will be mute spectators to the continuous travesty of justice at the hands of a prejudiced, biased, and skewed judge and justice will be denied to the unguarded citizens of this great nation”.

“The way Justice Bindal has dealt with… “Narada Bail Matter” casts serious doubts over the conduct and character of Justice Bindal,” the Bar Council chairman wrote, adding: “Justice Bindal by an order dated 17.05.2021 had stayed an interim order of bail passed by the Special CBI Court in favour of members of a certain political dispensation without giving the aggrieved parties an opportunity of being heard. If that was not all, the manner in which the Central Bureau of Investigation had approached the Calcutta High Court by way of an application/letter, based on which an interim order of bail stayed and the liberty/relief granted to the accused persons were snatched away, indicate that Justice Bindal does not have any regard for judicial propriety and has committed a mockery of the judicial conscience.”

Deb was referring to the May 17 incident, when within hours after a special CBI court granted bail to two TMC ministers and a TMC MLA and a former mayor of KMC in the Narada sting case, a division bench of the High Court stayed the bail on a CBI application. Later, a five-bench of the HC granted interim bail to the four accused.

Source: Indian Express. This news is not edited or created by our team.