The ruling Trinamul has objected to Mamata Banerjee’s case alleging malpractices in the counting of votes for the Nandigram Assembly seat coming up before the single bench of Justice Kaushik Chanda.

“Justice Kaushik Chanda is seen sharing a stage with BJP’s Dilip Ghosh. Unsurprisingly, he’s also the judge who has been assigned to hear the Nandigram case. As the India Judiciary system gets murkier day by day, will there be any justice in this case? Only time will tell,” a tweet on the Trinamul’s official handle said.

Along with the tweet, the Trinamul released photographs of Justice Chanda at events organised by the legal cell of the BJP.

On Thursday, Mamata had filed a case challenging the result of the Nandigram Assembly constituency, where Trinamul turncoat and BJP nominee Suvendu Adhikari defeated her by 1,965 votes.

She accused the latter of engaging in corrupt practices, including bribery and undue influence. She also alleged discrepancies in the counting process and said that demands for a recount were rejected by the returning officer.

The case came up for hearing before the single judge bench on Friday but was deferred till next Thursday as Mamata had not appeared before the court.

Justice Chanda said the petitioner has to be present in court. The hearing was postponed to June 24.

Lawyers affiliated with the Trinamul staged a demonstration against the case coming up before Justice Chanda’s bench.

As an advocate in the Calcutta high court, Justice Chanda had appeared in several cases filed by the BJP, like the legal challenge to Mamata’s decision on granting allowances to Imams in the state.

“As a lawyer he fought some cases for the party and won some. He was close to the former party state unit president, Rahul Sinha, but was never an active member of the BJP,” said a BJP leader.

Lawyers belonging to any political party appearing on behalf of politicians of rival parties is fairly common.

Congress leaders Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi have often been engaged as legal counsels by Trinamul leaders in the state. Sibal had represented Madan Mitra in the Saradha scam, while Singhvi, a Rajya Sabha MP of the Congress from Bengal, is one of the defence counsels in the on-going Narada sting operation case, where two Trinamul ministers and two other leaders were arrested by the CBI last month.

“A lawyer can have a political ideology and also appear as a professional for people from a different ideology. It is important to see whether political ideology is clouding the judge’s judgment,” said Arunava Ghosh, a lawyer and Congress leader.