Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee being present virtually at the hearing of Nandigram recounting once again asked Justice Kaushik Chanda to withdraw himself from the case.
Stating that ‘verdict will be biased’ Mamata Banerjee had objected to the hearing to which Justice Kaushik Chanda said that should they wait for administrative order or proceed judicially.
“When the case was registered with me on June 18 then no one objected. This is the duty of the counsel to point this out across all courts in the country,” said Chanda.
TMC’s lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi relying of the tweets of lawyer Prashant Bushan and TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek o’ Brien said that in several occasions Justice Kaushik Chanda was seen with the BJP leaders for which the verdict can be partial.
“As a lawyer you have fought more than 10 cases for the BJP and were also seen with BJP leaders. The Verdict can be partial. It is the duty of the court to see that proceedings are free from any partiality. If fair minded people are likely to prejudge the case, they will not have confidence in the justice system,” claimed Singhvi adding that Kaushik Chanda should volunteer and support recusal.
Countering the claims of Singhvi Justice Kaushik Chanda said that media trials were going on in several social media much before the case came up to the court.
“Hundreds of tweets have already been posted saying he should recuse. If I recuse now, will I be giving in to this media trial? It is common for lawyers to have political affiliations and Singhvi is also associated with the Congress,” mentioned the Justice.
Notably, West Bengal Chief minister had written to Acting Justice Rajesh Bindal over recusal of Justice Kaushik Chanda from Nandigram recounting case, the hearing of which is also pending.
The hearing of the Nandigram case was due on June 24 which further got deferred.
