Kolkata High Court dismisses petition for removal of Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar

An application seeking the removal of West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar was dismissed by the Calcutta high court on Friday.

A petitioner had alleged the Governor was destroying the spirit of federalism. The lawyer also requested the court direct the Union government not to use the Governor to sabotage the Mamata Banerjee government.

While dismissing the PIL, the division bench of Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj found that the material attached to the PIL did not carry any weight.

In its decision, the court said that the petition was based on some tweets, a letter from the Governor, and a newspaper article.

"We are not satisfied that the material placed along with the petition furnishes any ground to entertain the petition or to issue any such direction to the respondent No. 1 (Union government) as prayed in the petition. Hence, the petition is dismissed," the order read.

According to the petition, the Governor bypassed the state council of ministers and dictated directly to the officers and tweeted almost every day.

Furthermore, it was alleged that the Governor, being the formal head, is bound by the aid and advice of the council of ministers, and thus, his observations about how ministries function will have deeper political repercussions and even affect the federal structure.

According to Rama Prasad Sarkar, who filed the PIL; "It was a moral victory as the court has once again underlined the powers and jurisdictions of the Governor."

On behalf of the Union government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta asked that exemplary costs be imposed on the petitioner. No such costs, however, were imposed by the court.

"The PIL doesn't stand in court. It may well be a political debate but doesn't have any legal ground. Such an issue cannot be solved in the high court. It was bound to be dismissed," said the high court advocate, Sabyasachi Chatterjee.