Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court Wednesday dismissed a plea against the 12-hour ‘Bangla Bandh’ called by the BJP since the petitioner was debarred perpetually from filing PILs in a previous order.
Petitioner Sanjoy Das, who claimed to be a lawyer practising at the high court, sought that the bandh be declared illegal.
A division bench, presided by Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam, dismissed the public interest litigation (PIL), as the court in its previous order perpetually debarred Das from presenting any PIL before this high court.
The bench, also comprising Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, in that order rejected Das’s PIL, where it held that he had made false statements about himself, seeking a change of roster of a particular judge presiding over police inaction/overaction matters.
The bench also imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on Das in connection with that petition.
Maintaining that the petitioner has abused the process of this court, attempted to intimidate the office of the chief justice and made false statements about himself, the court dismissed the petition with exemplary cost.
The statewide shutdown was called by the BJP in protest against Tuesday’s police action on participants of ‘Nabanna Abhijan’ or march to the secretariat, organised by the newly formed students’ group Chatra Samaj demanding justice over the rape and murder of the doctor at RG Kar hospital.
Taking up the petition of Das seeking change of roster of a judge in the earlier hearing, a visibly angry chief justice told him that the court was not to be taken for granted.
“Never play with the court,” he said.
Refusing the prayer by the lawyer of Das to withdraw the petition, the bench said that the petitioner has to be “dealt with very severely” as neither he nor his lawyers went through the laws related to the issue raised by him in the petition.
Holding that Das has done nothing in the public interest though he claimed in his affidavit to have taken up causes affecting the masses, the court said, “You are trying to convert the high court into a football ground.”
Das had claimed that he was a practising lawyer at the high court for 10 years and has been associated with many matters, which have brought about social impact and made a difference in the lives of the common people.
On a query by the court as to what he did that brought about social impact and how he claimed to be a public-spirited person and worked for the poor and the needy as he claimed, the answer by Das was a “stoic silence”, bench noted.
The court said that the claims made by Das were false and unbecoming of a person in the legal profession.
The bench said the petitioner’s lawyers had during earlier hearings been asked to go through the legal position on the subject as to whether the allotment of determination of cases by the chief justice can be subject to judicial review.
The court said that this advice did not seem to have been well-taken by the petitioner’s lawyers.
It said that according to earlier Supreme Court judgements, the administrative control of a high court rests with the chief justice and he is the master of roster and that he alone has the prerogative to constitute the benches and allocate cases to the benches so constituted.
The petition is absolutely frivolous with an intention to intimidate the office of the Chief Justice with malafide intentions, the bench observed.
The court directed Das to pay the cost of Rs 50,000 imposed on him to the West Bengal State Legal Services Authority within 10 days.
PTI
