Prayers were made before the Chief Justice's bench of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday by a few lawyers seeking suo motu cognisance of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's "defamatory" statements over a judgement cancelling 25,753 school jobs in West Bengal for irregularities in the appointment process.

Senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya submitted to the court an affidavit enclosing newspaper clippings of Banerjee's statements along with a pen drive containing the extract of the speech and sought suo motu initiation of criminal contempt against her.

Another lawyer Kaustav Bagchi also submitted a representation requesting suo motu cognisance of the matter alleging "defamatory and malicious" comments by the chief minister over the judgement.

Bhattacharya is a CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP while Bangchi defected to the BJP from the Congress in February.

Two other lawyers also prayed for leave to file petitions with similar allegations, for which permission was granted by the bench comprising Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya.

Chief Justice Sivagnanam directed that the papers, along with petitions, for which leave was granted to be filed, be placed before him for appropriate orders.

A division bench of the high court, presided by Justice Debangsu Basak, had on Monday declared the school jobs selection process as "null and void".

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