Judge Questions Narada Case Decisions: “writ petition”

Calcutta High Court judge, objecting to the manner in which the Narada bribery case was handled, has put out a sharp critique of his colleagues alleging “unbecoming conduct” in a letter to senior judges. “We have been reduced to a mockery,” Justice Arindam Sinha writes in the letter that has stunned the judiciary.
Justice Sinha alleges that the CBI’s petition asking for the Narada case to be transferred outside Bengal was listed wrongly as a “writ petition” by the Calcutta High Court and therefore marked to a division bench instead of a single judge.

“The High Court must get its act together. Our conduct is unbecoming of the majesty the High Court commands,” Justice Sinha wrote in his letter to acting Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and other judges.

The CBI had filed the petition last week after arresting four Trinamool leaders, including two Bengal ministers. A division bench headed by Chief Justice Bindal had heard the request.

The CBI had asked for the case against the Trinamool leaders to be transferred out of Bengal citing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s sit-in protest at the agency’s office. It had also alleged that the state Law Minister went to court with a mob when the accused politicians were to be produced.

Justice Sinha wrote that the CBI’s petition should have been heard by a single judge instead of a division bench. It should not have been treated as a writ petition as there was “no substantial question of law” related to the constitution, he said.

“The mob factor may be a ground on merits for adjudication of the motion but could the first division bench have taken it up and continued to hear it as a writ petition is the first question,” he wrote.