Judge recuses, imposes Rs 5 lakh fine on Mamata Banerjee

But he imposed a cost of Rs 5 lakh for the manner in which the recusal was sought. Justice Chanda said he was doing so in order to thwart at the outset attempts by trouble-mongers to keep the controversy alive.

Justice Kausik Chanda of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday recused from hearing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s petition challenging the election of BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari from Nandigram. But he imposed a cost of Rs 5 lakh for the manner in which the recusal was sought.  Justice Chanda said he was doing so in order to thwart at the outset attempts by trouble-mongers to keep the controversy alive.

“A deliberate and conscious attempt was made to influence my decision before the recusal application was placed before me for judicial consideration on June 24,” he observed, pointing at social media posts by few TMC leaders. 

“The calculated psychological offensives and vilification adopted to seek recusal need to be firmly repulsed, and a cost of Rs 5 lakh is imposed upon the petitioner,” he said. Banerjee’s advocate Sanjay Basu said they would challenge the fine. “We will take steps to challenge that and I am sure we will be successful.”

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