Govt-empanelled lawyers say will not attend Calcutta HC judge's court

State-empanelled lawyers at the Calcutta High Court on Monday informed a judge, who made some caustic comments against the West Bengal government during a hearing, that they will not attend her court. Soon after she entered the courtroom for hearing cases, Additional Government Pleader Bhaskar Baishya told Justice Samapti Chattopadhyay that government-empanelled lawyers have resolved not to attend her court from now on.

The judge asked the lawyers whether they mean to say that she was doing injustice to her chair. "Determination (assignment of cases) is given to me by the chief justice and not by government lawyers. Give respect to the chair," Justice Chattopadhyay said during the hearing of a case challenging a confidence vote at Bongaon Municipality.

Justice Chattopadhyay, who holds the determination of municipal affairs, had made the remarks against the state government last week over holding confidence votes in some civic bodies in the state. "The way the judge is heckling government lawyers during the hearing of various cases, it is not possible for us to attend her court," Baishya, also the chairman of Trinamool Congress Lawyers' Cell, told PTI outside the courtroom.

Baishya said that the government-empanelled lawyers have written to Advocate General Kishore Dutta for forwarding a letter about their resolution not to attend Justice Chattopadhyay's court to the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court. The lawyers did not appear before the court of Justice Chattopadhyay during the hearing of the Bongaon Municipality case or any other matter during the day.

During the hearing of a petition on July 15, she had observed that it is unfortunate that water bodies are being filled up randomly, with the government doing nothing about it. Everybody seems to know what is happening, except the government, she had said.

Justice Chattopadhyay was also involved in a verbal exchange with senior counsel and TMC MP Kalyan Bandopadhyay on Thursday when the Bongaon Municipality matter was mentioned before her court. During a hearing on Friday, she had questioned the TMC chairman of Bongaon Municipality why he was trying to hold on to his chair when the majority of the councillors do not want him to continue in the post.

Advocate General Kishore Dutta, who represented the state government in the case on July 17, was not present during Monday's hearing of the matter. Justice Chattopadhyay had on July 19 stayed a meeting for holding a vote of confidence for Halisahar Municipality chairman on a plea by a councillor, which claimed the provision was being misused by the Trinamool Congress' head of the civic body to get protection.