The Calcutta High Court has taken suo motu cognisance of the alleged heckling of lawyers and defacing the picture of a sitting High Court judge by a mob in Kolkata. .A Division Bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Chaitali Chatterjee (Das) was informed about the incident on Monday by lawyers. The Court ordered the serving of notices to the Advocate General (AG), Additional Solicitor General (ASG) and the bar associations. “Let the petitions, upon registration, be placed before the Chief Justice [on the administrative side] for necessary orders,” the Court said. .According to allegations, the incident happened on April 25 when a mob gheraoed some lawyers outside their chambers near the High Court building.The Court was informed that the mob were associated with some litigants in case pending before Justice Biswajit Basu. “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 said. The lawyers added that the protesters defacing Justice Basu's picture as well. Chief Justice Sivagnanam said the issue was brought to his notice, and the AG was asked to intervene. The mob cleared around 8 PM, the Chief Justice said. However, he added that a party contesting a case before the Court cannot simultaneously take to the streets to protest. “If they are parties to a matter, and if they are already agitating their rights before a Court, parallelly they can’t take to the streets,” he said. The case is expected to be listed before the Court in the next few days.
The Calcutta High Court has taken suo motu cognisance of the alleged heckling of lawyers and defacing the picture of a sitting High Court judge by a mob in Kolkata. .A Division Bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Chaitali Chatterjee (Das) was informed about the incident on Monday by lawyers. The Court ordered the serving of notices to the Advocate General (AG), Additional Solicitor General (ASG) and the bar associations. “Let the petitions, upon registration, be placed before the Chief Justice [on the administrative side] for necessary orders,” the Court said. .According to allegations, the incident happened on April 25 when a mob gheraoed some lawyers outside their chambers near the High Court building.The Court was informed that the mob were associated with some litigants in case pending before Justice Biswajit Basu. “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 said. The lawyers added that the protesters defacing Justice Basu's picture as well. Chief Justice Sivagnanam said the issue was brought to his notice, and the AG was asked to intervene. The mob cleared around 8 PM, the Chief Justice said. However, he added that a party contesting a case before the Court cannot simultaneously take to the streets to protest. “If they are parties to a matter, and if they are already agitating their rights before a Court, parallelly they can’t take to the streets,” he said. The case is expected to be listed before the Court in the next few days.