Calcutta HC to hear Mamata Banerjee’s plea against Nandigram loss today – Hindustan Times

A single-judge bench of the Calcutta high court will hear today the petition filed by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee challenging her defeat in the March-April assembly elections from Nandigram.

Last week, Justice Kausik Chanda recused from hearing the petition but imposed a fine of ₹5 lakh on the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief for the manner in which the recusal was sought.

Banerjee and her party asked for transferring the petition to another judge citing “apprehension of bias” since Chanda, before his elevation to the bench in 2019, represented the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its leaders in court cases. Chanda and was seen in photographs sharing dais with BJP leaders including state unit chief Dilip Ghosh.

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“Such calculative, psychological, and offensive attempts to seek recusal need to be firmly repulsed and a cost of ₹5 lakh is imposed upon the petitioner,” Chanda said in his order on July 7. The money will be used to fight Covid-19.

“It is preposterous to suggest that a judge having a past association with a political party as a lawyer should not receive a case involving the said political party or any of its members. The past association of a judge with a political party by itself cannot form apprehension of bias,” Chanda said last week.

Banerjee moved the high court alleging voting irregularities in her narrow loss by 1,956 votes to her protégé-turned-adversary Suvendu Adhikari. It was her first electoral loss in 32 years.

The ruling TMC sought a recount shortly after the results were announced in favour of the BJP candidate, but the request was turned down by the Election Commission.