‘Fight political battles outside court’: SC to petitioner on plea for criminal contempt against Mamata

The bench was hearing the petition filed by Aatmdeep, a public charitable trust, which alleged that the chief minister made objectionable statements

The Supreme Court on July 21 (Monday) cautioned against politicising judicial proceedings while hearing a plea for criminal contempt against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her remarks on the verdict in the teachers' recruitment scam case.

“Please fight your political battle outside this court,” a division bench of Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran said.

The bench was hearing the petition filed by Aatmdeep, a public charitable trust, which alleged that the chief minister made objectionable statements undermining the authority of the judiciary following the apex court’s verdict.

Senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for the petitioner, urged the bench to defer hearing and said a request was sent to the Attorney General for his consent to initiate criminal contempt proceedings.

“Are you so sure that you will get the consent? Don’t try to politicise before the court; your political battle, you should fight somewhere else,” the CJI said.

The bench has posted hearing after four weeks.

The plea relates to a ruling in April this year, in which the Supreme Court upheld a Calcutta High Court order that invalidated nearly 25,000 appointments made by the West Bengal School Service Commission in 2016.

The top court had concurred with the high court’s conclusion that the recruitment process was marred by fraud and could not be salvaged.

The chief minister allegedly made some critical observations on the judgement leading to the filing of the contempt plea by the public charitable trust.

With inputs from PTI