By IANS
Kolkata : The Calcutta High Court Tuesday issued contempt notices to three senior Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leaders, including Left Front chairman Biman Bose, for their comments in public against a Nov 17 court order on compensation to Nandigram victims.
The notices have been served to two CPI-M central committee leaders – Symal Chakraborty and Binoy Konar – and the party’s state secretary Bose by a division bench comprising Chief Justice S.S. Nijjar and Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghosh.
The Calcutta High Court Bar Association, Bar Library Club and Incorporated Law Society sought contempt proceedings against the CPI-M leaders. The court agreed to hear the petition and initiated a suo motu case.
“Whatever I have said is true. I don’t have anything to do if my comments hurt anyone. I have not spoken any lie. I held a mirror before them (the judges) so that they can also see themselves,” said a defiant Konar, who is also the All India Krishak Sabha vice-president.
Addressing a rally last week, Bose had said judges seemed to be ruling the country.
“In that case, raising judges’ salaries would ensure the functioning of democracy,” he had ridiculed after the high court termed the March 14 firing in Nandigram “unconstitutional”.
High court lawyers brought the matter up before the chief justice, claiming the image of the court and of the judges was sullied by the statements of the CPI-M leaders.
Saying that they had felt insulted by the comments, the lawyers sought permission to file a contempt petition against the CPI-M leaders.
The petitioners said television clips and newspaper reports would be produced as documentary evidence. The media would be made parties to the case.
“I can’t comment on the show-cause notice. I am hearing about this for the first time. It was really not in my knowledge that any such case had been filed against me,” said Chakraborty, state president of CPI-M’s workers’ wing Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU).
Earlier, Bose was sentenced to three days’ imprisonment and fined Rs.10,000 by the high court for making derogatory remarks against Justice Amitava Lala.
The Supreme Court, which is hearing an appeal by the CPI-M leader, has stayed that order.
In 2000, Bose had to pay a token fine imposed by a lower court for making derogatory comments about the judiciary.