Author: Ranjit Roy
Publication: Organiser
Date: September 9, 2007
URL: http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=200&page=5
On August 14, lawyers in West Bengal had observed
a day's cease work in protest "pre-planned and politically motivated
attacks on judiciary in order to bow it down" before the wishes of the
ruling Marxists. As a result, all law courts from high court to sub-divisional
courts were closed in West Bengal on August 14.
The Bar Council of West Bengal alleged that
the ruling CPM party in collusion with the police and the administration is
harassing lawyers in district and sub-divisional courts whenever they point
out police excesses or tortures in jail custody.
Recently, one senior lawyer in Diamond Harbour
sub-division court, about 25 km from Kolkata, was severely beaten up by police
and some security staff of the local jail when he protested against tortures
of an under-trial prisoner in the presence of jail superintendent. As the
news of the assault on lawyer reached Diamond Harbour court, other lawyers
had rushed to rescue their colleague and a clash broke out near the jail premises.
Several lawyers were injured following brutal lathi-charge by the police and
later injured lawyers were booked on fake charges of rioting and even for
attempting to murder of government officers.
No doubt, the ruling CPM bosses in West Bengal
have lately fixed judiciary for their new objective to baptize in Marxism.
Like zealots of Islam and Christianity preaching their religions with swords
in one hand and religious books in their other hand, Marxists in Bengal are
using the same tactic of blowing hot and cold to make judiciary kneel down
before them.
While the party bosses are openly criticising
judiciary by calling it a "pro-active", their government is secretly
offering "lucrative offers" to judges and senior lawyers only to
bow them before the wishes of the Marxist party. Such dealings are not unknown
to media in West Bengal. But no one dare expose them fearing contempt cases.
However, proverbial "black cat" was out of the government bag when
Supreme Court had ordered to auction the residential plot and the house of
the retired Kolkata high court justice Bhagawati Prasad Banerjee. According
to Supreme Court ruling, Justice Banerjee had received a prime residential
plot at Salt Lake from the government following a special recommendation of
the then Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu. A public interest litigation (PIL) was
pending before the court of Justice Banerjee against Jyoti Basu for illegal
distribution of Salt Lake residential plots to buy loyalty to his government
and his party. The Supreme Court had described the incident as a clear case
of bribery to influence judgment.
This is also evident in the case of mass murders
of Trinamool Congress supporters by CPM cadres in Chhota-Angaria tribal village
in West Midnapore a few years ago. The killers were identified by the CBI
as Tapan Ghosh and Sukur Ali. Both the accused persons were prominent local
CPM leaders. When judges of Kolkata High Court issued orders to arrest them
on charges of murders, the police claimed they were absconding. The prosecuting
lawyers submitted a number of photographs before the court that had shown
both the culprits were holding party rallies and meetings with district police
officials at the time when they were supposed to be absconding and could not
be arrested. The two main accused of Chhota-Angaria carnage have never been
brought to book by the police so far thanks to political patronage of the
ruling CPM.
Shri Gyandhir Sharma Sarkar, a retired judge
of Kolkata high court, in his recent article published in Bengali newspaper,
Dainik Statesman, Kolkata on August 13 said, "The CPM has destroyed our
glorious legacy of neutral government administration during its 30 years of
uninterrupted rule in West Bengal.
The CPM's vilification campaign against judiciary
in West Bengal started openly in 2005-06 when Justice Amitava Lala of Kolkata
high court admonished some senior city police officials for allowing CPM processions
to pass by halting vehicular traffic during the busy office hours in the morning.
Justice Lala had observed that no political party rallies should be allowed
disrupting vehicular traffic in the city during week days.
The CPM state secretary, Biman Bose, took
it as an affront to his party and later he himself led a party procession
in the city during busy office hours only to defy justice Lala. Slogans were
raised from the procession by the party loyalists, "Amitava Lala, you
better quit Bengal".
This was a clear case of contempt and high
court had punished Biman Bose for defying court order. Undaunted, Bose asked
his party workers to come out in the streets in thousands with buckets in
their hands to collect donations from public to help funding an appeal case
against the contempt punishment before Supreme Court.
When Kolkata high court ordered to shift the
venue of annual Kolkata Book Fair from city's Maidan area on grounds of air
pollution in February this year, the Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee,
described the high court order as "unjustified and against writers, intellectuals
and book lovers". When all attempts to bow down high court before the
wishes of party bosses failed, the government had no other alternative but
to shift the venue.
After police bestiality at Singur and Nandigram
over forcible acquisition of farm land the Kolkata high court ordered the
CBI inquiry into the incident of mass rape and murder of a teen-age girl,
Tapasi Malik, at Singur, the CPM has launched a state-wide vilification campaign
against judiciary. Tapasi was in the forefront of agitation against forcible
acquisition of farm land by the government for the Tata's proposed small car
factory. The high court was not satisfied by the state CID's investigation
report that Tapasi had committed suicide following family disputes.
The Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee,
initially endorsed the high court's order.
However, when the CBI sleuths arrested two
local CPM leaders, Debu Malik and Suhrid Dutta, in Tapasi murder case, the
party stalwarts like Jyoti Basu, Biman Bose, Binoy Konar, Subhas Chakraborty
spearheaded vilification campaign against the CBI for the arrests and the
judiciary for not granting bails to two party leaders. The state party mouthpiece,
Ganashakti published a number of articles and speeches by senior party leaders
since the arrests in June describing the CBI as a stooge of the Congress.
The objective of the party's vilification
campaign is to terrorise the judiciary first and then to turn it into another
wing of the party.
(Kolkata VSK Feature Service)
