Today, On 2nd May, The Calcutta High Court has asked the Kolkata Police Commissioner to submit a report on the heckling of lawyers, stating prima facie that criminal contempt was committed by interfering with justice and scandalising the judiciary.
Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court has instructed the Kolkata Police Commissioner to submit a report regarding the alleged harassment of several lawyers on April 25 near the court’s vicinity.
The court also directed the Commissioner to ensure the safety of legal professionals.
A special three-judge bench has mandated that the Commissioner conduct an investigation to “identify the persons who were responsible and who participated in the unfortunate incident.”
The Court said,
“We have gone through the material which have so far been brought on record, including the affidavits of persons who were present at the scene of occurrence. Prima facie, we are of the view that criminal contempt has been committed in this case by interfering with due administration of justice and scandalising the judiciary,”
The bench further instructed the Commissioner to guarantee the protection of members of the legal fraternity and to implement measures to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
The court has set a deadline of May 19 for the city police chief to file the report.
In addition, the Commissioner has been directed to preserve the CCTV footage of the incident that occurred at the intersection of Kiran Shankar Roy Road and Old Post Office Street, near the High Court premises, on the evening of April 25.
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Taking suo motu cognizance of the alleged incident, Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam formed the three-judge special bench, comprising Justices Arijit Banerjee, Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya, and Rajarshi Bharadwaj, to address the matter.
Addressing the issue, the bench observed that, prima facie, it believed that criminal contempt had been committed by interfering with the due administration of justice and scandalizing the judiciary.
The bench ordered that notice be issued to eight alleged contemnors named in a petition and copies of all affidavits and other materials related to the contempt proceedings be made available to them.
The bench also said the alleged contemnors would be at liberty to file their replies within a fortnight from the date of receipt of the notice.
Acknowledging the alleged incident, including the harassment of senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya by a mob, the Chief Justice’s bench on April 28 ordered that notices be served to the office of the Advocate General, the Additional Solicitor General, and the respective secretaries of the three wings of the Bar, the Bar Association, the Bar Library Club, and the Incorporated Law Society of the High Court.
The lawyers told the Chief Justice,
“They [the mob] not only abused, heckled and assaulted the lawyers in front of the police, but they demeaned Hon’ble Justice Biswajit Basu. Please take cognisance of this issue… We are scared,”
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Several advocates brought the April 25 incident to the attention of the Chief Justice’s bench, alleging that Bhattacharya and his associates were “gheraoed and heckled” by individuals outside their chambers opposite the High Court building.
Claiming that the hecklers were likely associated with some litigants, the lawyers requested that the court take cognizance of the issue.
They also informed the court that complaints regarding the heckling had been lodged with the police.
Case Title: Court on its own motion v Raju Das & Ors