The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday granted one last opportunity to the State of West Bengal to file a supplementary affidavit in the post-poll violence case. The Court allowed the State government time till July 31 to file the supplementary affidavit.
During the hearing by the five Judge Bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal, the State government sought time to submit supplementary affidavits in response to the report by a committee of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). The court allowed the State government to file supplementary affidavits by July 31.
The State government had earlier this week filed a response to the NHRC committee report, dismissed the allegation, and alleged the NHRC report was biased against West Bengal’s ruling dispensation.
The NHRC report filed before the High Court on July 13 was severely critical of the State government and the administration and had recommended a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the allegations of post poll violence.
Meanwhile, the State’s Forest Minister Jyotipriyo Mullick and MLA Partha Bhowmick have approached the court, raising objections to the NHRC committee’s report, in which they have been referred to as a “notorious goon”. The court said that the Trinamool Congress leaders’ petition could not be added to the post poll violence case.
The post poll violence case will come up for hearing on August 2.
While the hearing was underway, a section of lawyers held protests outside the Calcutta HC’s Court Number 1, the court meant for the Acting Chief Justice. A section of lawyers has been demanding that the court should not function without proper clarity on the jurisdiction and allotment of cases to judges. The protesting lawyers directed their grievances at the Acting Chief Justice.
On Tuesday, members of the Bar Association of the Calcutta High Court held a meeting in which it was decided that they would not engage in any boycott and the court would function as things were slowly returning to normalcy. The Bar Association said it would review the situation after 15 days.
