Kolkata, May 19 (IANS) A special division bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Monday, issued the rule of contempt-of-court against Trinamool Congress state general secretary Kunal Ghosh and six others accused in the case of lawyers’ harassment and making derogatory comments against the judge.

The special three-judge bench of Justice Arijit Banerjee, Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj, which was constituted specially to hear this particular case, issued the rule of contempt of court against the seven accused individuals for failing to file affidavits to the court in the matter within the stipulated period.

While issuing the rule of contempt of court, Justice Banerjee pointed out that on May 2, the court had observed that what happened over the protest demonstration was an offence which was criminal in nature and directed the accused persons to file their affidavits in the matter within 15 days.

Observing that despite that order, none of the accused filed the affidavit within 15 days, and hence rule of contempt of court was issued. When a rule is issued against any individual, that person is required to be physically present at the court on the specified date and explain to the court why disciplinary action would not be initiated against him or her for disregarding the court order.

The next date of hearing in the matter has been scheduled on June 16.

Kunal Ghosh said that although he has full respect towards the judicial system of the country, he feels pity for those who are filing politically biased cases against him.

Last month, a group of candidates for teaching posts in the upper-primary section protested in front of the chamber of Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya. During the protests, the protesters used derogatory comments on Justice Basu due to some negative observations by the latter in certain cases on the alleged school-job scam.

Calcutta High Court’s Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam took cognisance of the matter and directed Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Kumar Verma to investigate the matter and identify the protesters. Calcutta High Court also registered a suo motu contempt-of-court case in the matter.

–IANS

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