Bengal CM urges CJI Kant to protect Constitution, judiciary, democracy
Jalpaiguri (PTI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday urged Chief Justice of India Surya Kant to protect the country’s Constitution, democracy and judiciary.
Banerjee, speaking at a programme to inaugurate a new building of the Jalpaiguri Circuit Bench of the Calcutta High Court, also called upon Justice Kant to protect the people of the country from being wrongly targeted by “agencies”.
“Please protect the Constitution, democracy, judiciary, history and geography, as well as the country’s borders, from disaster,” she said, without elaborating.
“You (the CJI) are the guardian of our Constitution. We are under your legal guardianship. Nobody is superior to you in the judiciary. On behalf of the people of the country, we request that there should be no bias on the basis of caste or religion. Let us work, speak and think for unity,” she said.
Banerjee, also the TMC supremo, urged the CJI to ensure that “media trials” of cases before their disposal are stopped completely.
“There is a growing trend of media trials before cases are disposed of. This must stop,” she asserted.
The chief minister also urged Justice Kant to take care of the new generation of lawyers, alleging that junior lawyers were struggling and not receiving their due benefits.
Banerjee said that although the central government had “stopped funding” for fast-track courts in West Bengal, her government had set up 88 such courts.
“We have already spent more than Rs 1,200 crore on courts. Please do not mind (referring to Union Law and Justice Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal among the attendees); though the Centre has stopped the funding, we are continuing the fast-track courts,” she said.
Of these, 52 courts are for women, seven are POCSO courts, four labour courts, and 19 are human rights courts, the CM said.
She also said that the new Jalpaiguri Circuit Bench building was “better than the Calcutta High Court (building)”.
Around 40.08 acres of prime land was allocated for construction of the building here, and the state government spent more than Rs 500 crore on it, she said.
“We have given 14 acres of prime land to the Calcutta High Court for a new building in Rajarhat in New Town,” Banerjee said, adding, the state government has set up six district judges’ courts and eight sub-divisional judges’ courts.
Justice Kant, Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court Sujoy Paul, former Supreme Court judges, West Bengal Advocate General Kishore Datta, Meghwal, and state Law Minister Moloy Ghatak were among those present at the programme.
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BJP has history of ‘contradictory alliances’, says BK Hariprasad
Bengaluru: Congress MLC B. K. Hariprasad has launched a sharp attack on the BJP, accusing the party of hypocrisy over its criticism of alliance politics in Tamil Nadu.
In a post on X on Friday, Hariprasad said BJP leader B. L. Santhosh criticising the Congress party’s alliance politics in Tamil Nadu was “not just laughable, but the height of political contradiction.”
He said the Congress has always joined hands with like-minded parties to protect secular and democratic values in the country.
Hariprasad questioned the BJP over several of its past and present alliances across the country. Referring to Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Tripura, Bihar and Maharashtra, he accused the BJP of sharing power with parties it had earlier criticised.
He alleged that the BJP had aligned with separatist and corruption-linked political forces in different states for political gains.
“The BJP, which speaks against alliances today, should first look at its own political history,” he said, adding that the party’s record was full of “contradictions and changing stands.”
Hariprasad also accused the BJP of using central agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax Department and CBI as political tools to target opposition leaders, topple governments and influence electoral mandates.
He further claimed that the people of Tamil Nadu had strongly rejected the BJP and its ideology in the recent election.
“Congress forms alliances to protect the Constitution, secularism and national unity, while the BJP enters into alliances only for power,” he said.
