The Calcutta High Court on Friday observed that the incident of a mob encircling lawyers and defacing the picture of a sitting judge amounts to criminal contempt of court [Court on its own motion v Raju Das & Ors]. .A Bench of Justices Arijit Banerjee, Sabyasachi Bhattacharya and Rajarshi Bharadwaj said that it is a serious matter and issued notices to eight persons who committed the act. “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 Court said. It also ordered the Calcutta Police Commissioner to identify other members of the mob and preserve the CCTV footage of the incident. The Bench added that police protection should be given to the lawyers and the Police Commissioner must ensure that a similar incident does not happen in future. The case will be heard next on May 19. .According to allegations, the incident happened on April 25 when a mob gheraoed some lawyers outside their chambers near the High Court building and defaced Justice Biswajit Basu's picture. The mob was allegedly associated with some litigants in a case pending before Justice Basu. The incident was brought to the notice of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam on April 28. “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,” the lawyers told the Chief Justice. The Chief Justice took suo motu cognisance of the incident and placed it before a bench of three judges.
The Calcutta High Court on Friday observed that the incident of a mob encircling lawyers and defacing the picture of a sitting judge amounts to criminal contempt of court [Court on its own motion v Raju Das & Ors]. .A Bench of Justices Arijit Banerjee, Sabyasachi Bhattacharya and Rajarshi Bharadwaj said that it is a serious matter and issued notices to eight persons who committed the act. “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 Court said. It also ordered the Calcutta Police Commissioner to identify other members of the mob and preserve the CCTV footage of the incident. The Bench added that police protection should be given to the lawyers and the Police Commissioner must ensure that a similar incident does not happen in future. The case will be heard next on May 19. .According to allegations, the incident happened on April 25 when a mob gheraoed some lawyers outside their chambers near the High Court building and defaced Justice Biswajit Basu's picture. The mob was allegedly associated with some litigants in a case pending before Justice Basu. The incident was brought to the notice of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam on April 28. “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,” the lawyers told the Chief Justice. The Chief Justice took suo motu cognisance of the incident and placed it before a bench of three judges.
