Narada Case: Calcutta High Court reserves orders on Applications filed for accepting Affidavits

Queency Jain-

The Calcutta High Court has reserved order on applications filed by the Government of West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the State Law Minister Moloy Ghatak wherein they were seeking the Court to accept their affidavits in the Narada Scam Case.

The constitutional bench headed by the Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal said that the court will consider the reasons stated by the Government for not filing the counter affidavits on time and will deliver its verdict tomorrow.

This order was passed after the Supreme Court side aside the Calcutta High Court’s previous order which stated that no reasons will be considered for not filing counter affidavits on time.

The Supreme Court directed the legislators to mention the reasons for not filing the counter affidavits on time and requested the Calcutta High Court to decide the application before moving with the hearing on merits.

Though the CBI stated that the respondents have calculated risk and then after are filing counter-affidavits, the State requested the Court to allow the full facts to be presented in front of them.

It was further argued on the behalf of the respondents that since Rule 38 provides the parties to file their affidavits in 4 weeks, the State relied upon the same and hence there was no delay on their part and since the State is responsible for law and order in the State, it will be best suited if they present the facts of the incident.

After Justice Soumen Sen stated that while exercising supervisory jurisdiction, Courts are free to ask for a record that what the state of affairs was on the date of the incident to which Justice Mukerji urged the bench to impose costs on respondents for not filing an affidavit on time.

The CBI moved to the High Court asking for transfer of the trial proceedings from the Special CBI Court to the High Court. The accused TMC leaders pleaded not guilty stating that the public perception must not be considered as a ground in law to check whether the protests that happened on 17^th May affected the administration of justice.