Calcutta High Court: Section of lawyers remains absent from Justice Mantha’s court after calling off protest – The Indian Express

Kolkata News

Despite calling off their protest against Justice Rajasekhar Mantha over some of the orders passed by him, a section of lawyers remained absent at the bench of the Calcutta High Court judge on Friday.

Those who were absent at courtroom 13 of Justice Mantha included some public prosecutors and state government pleaders, said sources. There was, however, no protest outside the courtroom. It has been learnt that counsels concerned for 35 cases remained absent during the hearing due to which the hearing in those matters had to be postponed to a later date.

It has also been learnt that state Advocate General Soumendra Nath Mookherjee was participating in the hearing at the court wherever he was supposed to appear.

Meanwhile, according to sources, the Bar Council of India has decided to send a three-member team to the Calcutta High Court to investigate the protest by a section of lawyers outside Justice Mantha’s court earlier this week.

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The three-member investigating team — comprising Supreme Court advocate Ravindra Kumar Raizda, Allahabad High Court judge Justice Ashok Mehta and Delhi High Court Bar Association executive committee member Vandana Kaur Grover — will submit its report on January 17.

On January 9, a section of lawyers at the High Court began a protest outside Justice Mantha’s courtroom, while some of them even prevented their colleagues from entering the judge’s court.

The lawyers, however, ended their agitation on January 11 and withdrew their call for a boycott of the judge.

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The protest drew criticism from judges and prompted West Bengal Governor CV Anand Bose to direct the Trinamool Congress government to “protect judiciary”.

Justice Mantha had, meanwhile, initiated contempt proceedings against the lawyers for disrupting work at his court and filed a suo motu petition against them which the Division Bench of Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj heard on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Calcutta High Court Bar Association secretary Biswabrata Basu Mullick appeared before Justice Mantha and assured him that such an incident would not be repeated in his court. Mullick also urged Justice Mantha not to pass any ex-parte order in case of the non-appearance of lawyers while assuring him that efforts were on to ensure normalcy in the court.

Source: https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMipAFodHRwczovL2luZGlhbmV4cHJlc3MuY29tL2FydGljbGUvY2l0aWVzL2tvbGthdGEvY2FsY3V0dGEtaGlnaC1jb3VydC1zZWN0aW9uLW9mLWxhd3llcnMtcmVtYWlucy1hYnNlbnQtZnJvbS1qdXN0aWNlLW1hbnRoYXMtY291cnQtYWZ0ZXItY2FsbGluZy1vZmYtcHJvdGVzdC04MzgwODg2L9IBqQFodHRwczovL2luZGlhbmV4cHJlc3MuY29tL2FydGljbGUvY2l0aWVzL2tvbGthdGEvY2FsY3V0dGEtaGlnaC1jb3VydC1zZWN0aW9uLW9mLWxhd3llcnMtcmVtYWlucy1hYnNlbnQtZnJvbS1qdXN0aWNlLW1hbnRoYXMtY291cnQtYWZ0ZXItY2FsbGluZy1vZmYtcHJvdGVzdC04MzgwODg2L2xpdGUv?oc=5