Days after Justice Indira Banerjee recused herself from hearing petitions on West Bengal post-poll violence, another Supreme Court Justice has now requested to transfer the petition by Mamata Banerjee in the Narada sting case to another Bench.
On Thursday, Justice Aniruddha Bose recused himself from hearing the appeal by the West Bengal government. The case was slated to be heard by a 2-Judge Bench of Justices Bose and Hemant Gupta. During the hearing, Justice Gupta informed that Justice Bose has some reservations about the case. He said, “It will be listed before some other Bench. Brother Bose has some reservations.”
BREAKING: Supreme Court judge recuses from hearing Case related to the State of West Bengal.
— LawBeat (@LawBeatInd) June 22, 2021
Justice Aniruddha Bose refers matter to another bench.
Earlier Justice Indira Banerjee had recused from hearing the case(s).
Both judges hail from #Westbengal#naradascam https://t.co/gys2OvoyGJ
Reportedly, CM Mamata Banerjee had moved the apex court, challenging the June 9 order of the Calcutta High Court. The High Court had refused to take her and Law Minister Moloy Ghatak’s reply affidavits on record in the transfer petition by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Narada sting case. In its June 9 order, the High Court said, “They (CM, law minister, and state) have waited for the arguments in the case to be substantially completed before seeking to place on record their pleadings in response.”
It added, “It is nothing else but filling the lacunae or supporting the accused. That is why, even the learned Counsels appearing for the accused are also supporting the prayer made by the State for taking these belated affidavits on record.” In her appeal before the apex Court, Mamata Banerjee had argued that the CBI has been allowed to filed additional affidavits while the rights of the State government and the Law Minister was ‘closed.’
Justice Indira Banerjee earlier recused herself from hearing the case on post-poll violence in West Bengal
On Friday (June 11), Justice Indira Banerjee had recused herself from hearing a petition, which sought for an independent SIT/CBI probe in the killing of two BJP workers in West Bengal. The petition was filed by Biswajit Sarkar, the brother of deceased Avijit Sarkar who was killed by Trinamool Congress goons. The plea came up before a 2-Judge Bench of Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice MR Shah.
“I have some difficulty in hearing the matter,” Justice Indira Banerjee said while recusing herself from the case. The matter was adjourned and the Registry was directed to list the matter before a Bench without Justice Banerjee in it. On May 2, a BJP worker named Avijit Sarkar took to Facebook to narrate the harrowing tale of violence that he was subjected to by the TMC goons.
The video was uploaded just hours before he was lynched to death by the miscreants. Opindia has learnt that Avijit Sarkar was beaten to death after uploading the two testimonials on Facebook. Following the victory of the Trinamool Congress, several BJP workers and supporters had expressed fear that Mamata Banerjee’s return to power might jeopardise their livelihood and existence.
Notably, both Supreme Court judges, Aniruddha Bose and Indira Banerjee, hail from West Bengal.
