A Calcutta High Court division bench headed by Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam on Monday declined to accept a lawyer’s plea for an early hearing of his public interest litigation on the prevailing situation in Sandeshkhali.
The chief justice said the petitioner had neither visited Sandeshkhali nor was she linked to the place in North 24-Parganas and the matter could not be heard ahead of other cases.
It will be heard only when its turn comes, the bench said.
“Is the petitioner a social worker? Does she belong to an NGO?” the chief justice asked when the petition came up for hearing before his bench on Monday morning.
The lawyer representing the petitioner informed the judge that his client was neither a social worker nor a member of an NGO.
The chief justice then asked: “Is the petitioner a resident of Sandeshkhali or a victim of the alleged incident? Has she herself visited the allegedly disturbed areas?”
The lawyer responded: “No”.
The chief justice said: “Then the bench cannot accept her plea for early hearing of the case. The case has been filed on the basis of media reports. Courts should not entertain these pleas.”
The chief justice said his bench was not rejecting the petition but it would be on the list and heard only when its turn came. According to the rule, matters are heard based on their position on the cause list, which is updated every day depending on the petitions filed in the court.
The court, however, has the liberty to hear petitions it considers important ahead of those filed before it.
The chief justice’s decision is significant because it has become common practice to hear political matters on priority.
A senior lawyer at the high court said: “Some lawyers want to gain publicity by moving such cases. These politically motivated petitions are generally heard by courts leaving aside important events as the lawyers pray for early hearing.”
Recently, environment activist Subhas Datta wrote a letter to the chief justice complaining about the “exorbitant delay in hearing the cases relating to issues involving genuine public interest”.
In his letter, Datta had mentioned that the issues related to political interests were being given priority by courts, sometimes “unnecessarily”.
Datta told Metro on Monday: “I am fed up and have stopped going to courts. Some of my important cases on environmental problems have been waiting to be heard for years.”
“In my letter, I mentioned that the apex court had asked Calcutta High Court to set up a green bench to hear public interest issues. But now this bench hears political issues,” Datta said.
Section 144
Justice Kaushik Chanda of the high court on Monday issued an interim stay on the decision to impose Section 144 on some areas of Sandeshkhali for seven days and allowed the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, to visit certain areas.
The court, however, placed certain riders for Adhikari. It asked him not to make any provocative statements during his stay in Sandeshkhali as it might create further disturbance in the area.
Adhikari, who is expected to visit Sandeshkhali on Tuesday, has been asked to inform the state administration about his route in advance. The state police as well as central forces have been asked to escort Adhikari during his visit.