Munmun Kaur
Published On: February 19, 2022 at 14:28 IST
The Calcutta High Court on February 18, dismissed a Petition which sought the removal of West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on the grounds that he was allegedly working as the mouthpiece of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and interfering in the functioning of the State Government thus, destroying the spirit of federalism.
The Petition was filed by Advocate Rama Prasad Sarkar who claimed that Dhankhar has regularly ignored the advice of the State’s Council of Ministers and has intervened in matters ranging from Law and order to health and education.
A Bench of Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj hearing the matter observed that Article 361 of the Constitution stipulates that a Governor cannot be made answerable to any Court for the exercise and performance of his/her powers and duties.
The Order read, “Examining the present case in the light of earlier pronouncements and limited scope of Judicial Review we find that the Writ Petition is based upon some tweets, one letter of the Governor and the publications made by one newspaper”.
The High Court held that the material placed along with the Petition did not furnish any ground to entertain the Petition or to issue any such direction to the Respondent as prayed in the Petition. Hence, the Petition was dismissed.