Kolkata: Justice Kausik Chanda of the Calcutta High Court Wednesday recused himself from hearing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's petition challenging the election of Suvendu Adhikari from Nandigram, but not before imposing a cost of Rs 5 lakh on her.
The judge blamed Mamata for making a deliberate attempt to influence his decision before seeking the recusal application, and imposed the cost for the manner of seeking the recusal. He also directed that the amount be deposited to the Bar Council of West Bengal within two weeks.
"Such calculative, psychological and offensive attempt to seek recusal need to be firmly repulsed and a cost of Rs. 5 lakh is imposed upon Petitioner," he said in the order.
On June 24, Mamata's application that the judge recuse himself from hearing her election petition apprehending bias on his part, was reserved for order.
Following judge's recusal, Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal will take the call on assigning it to a different bench.
Seeking his recusal, Mamata had claimed that Justice Chanda was an active member of the BJP till his appointment as the Additional Solicitor General of India in 2015 and since the subject of the petition was the electoral victory of a BJP candidate, there were apprehensions of bias in the adjudication of the election petition.
Justice Chanda had said that he was never a convenor of the BJP Legal Cell, but had appeared in many cases representing the party before the Calcutta High Court.
Banerjee's counsel had earlier written to the Acting Chief Justice of the High Court seeking reassignment of her election petition to another bench.