On Thursday, a petition seeking contempt against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was withdrawn in the Supreme Court when the Attorney General of India (AG) refused to give the consent which is mandatory to prosecute such a case. A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan R. Gavai and Justice K. Vinod Chandran registered the withdrawal.
The petitioner was Aatmadeep which was an organisation incorporated as a charitable trust in which the petitioner Aatmadeep was claiming that the public comments made by Mamata Banerjee constituted contempt of court. The comments were allegedly intended in response to the directive of the Supreme Court earlier this year that voided over 25,000 teacher postings involving the infamous case of West Bengal recruitment of school teachers.
A lawyer Ayush Anand acting on behalf of Aatmadeep informed the bench that the petition could not be heard as the AG refused to give the approval. “I am ordered to take out the contempt petition. I have not given consent to the AG and that, said he to the court.”
This came after the bench earlier criticized. The CJI had sternly reprimanded the petitioner in July because he tried to bring political issues into the courtroom. The court noted that it did not endorse the politicisation of judicial platforms and therefore said that it would rather have its political battles elsewhere than on the courtroom.
Section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act and Rule 3(c) of the 1975 Rules by which the contempt proceedings are conducted in the Supreme Court provide that the consent of the Attorney General must be obtained before a private party may take action to obtain contempt. In the absence of such approval, the matter can not be formally entertained.
The uproar was based on the April 3 decision of the Supreme Court that overturned more than 25,000 teacher recruitment appointments that were conducted in 2016. The court declared the whole selection procedure as vitiated and tainted irreparably.
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