Mamata gets contempt of court notice for remarks on SC verdict over school jobs matter

Kolkata, April 10: A Delhi-based advocate, on Thursday, served the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with contempt of court notice over her recent comments on the verdict of the Supreme Court last week upholding a previous order by Calcutta High Court, cancelling the entire panel of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching jobs on grounds that the state government and the commission failed to segregate the “genuine” candidates from the “tainted” ones.

The said advocate, Siddhartha Datta, has claimed that while everyone is bound by any order of the apex court of the country, from the Chief Minister's recent comments on the verdict on job loss, it appears that the order will not be implemented.

The advocate, in the legal notice, has also claimed that unless the Chief Minister withdrew her comments and apologised for the same, legal proceedings would be initiated against her.

Reacting to the contempt of court notice, Trinamool Congress state general secretary in West Bengal Kunal Ghosh on Thursday afternoon issued a statement claiming that the legal notice was meant to create legal hurdles and thus delay the process of humanitarian initiatives undertaken by the Chief Minister and her administration to protect the interests of the job losers.

Ghosh has also indirectly blamed the BJP and the Left Parties as clandestine conspirators in the matter.

"Ram-Bam (BJP & Left) are failures in the electoral fields and hence they try to create legal hassle. The Chief Minister has full faith in the judiciary. She also respects the judges. There is no question of contempt of court if the Chief Minister is not in agreement with a particular verdict if that verdict impacts several people adversely," Ghosh claimed.

Indirectly referring to the BJP Lok Sabha member from Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency in East Midnapore district and the former judge of Calcutta High Court, Abhijit Gangopadhyay, Ghosh claimed that when a judge quits his job to contest as a BJP candidate, then people also questions the neutrality of that person.

Ghosh had also issued an appeal to the job losers to decide whether they would stand by the "humanitarian" initiatives of the Chief Minister in the matter or whether they would be backing the attempts by conspirators to create legal hassles.

Reader Comments

P

Priya K.

This is such a complex situation. While I understand the CM's concern for job seekers, we can't ignore court orders. There has to be a middle path that ensures justice for genuine candidates without undermining the judiciary. 🤔

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Rahul M.

The timing of this notice seems political. Why wasn't similar action taken when other politicians criticized court verdicts? The whole system needs more consistency.

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Sanjay P.

Respectfully disagree with Mamata ji here. You can't pick and choose which court orders to follow. The system only works when everyone plays by the same rules.

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Ananya D.

My cousin was one of those affected by the job cancellations. It's heartbreaking to see qualified people suffer because of systemic corruption. Hope a fair solution emerges soon. 🙏

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Kunal R.

The real victims here are the honest candidates who worked hard for these jobs. Instead of political blame games, all parties should focus on helping them.

M

Meena S.

Interesting how quickly this became about BJP vs TMC when it should be about fixing the recruitment process. Can we please focus on solutions rather than politics for once?

We welcome thoughtful discussions from our readers. Please keep comments respectful and on-topic.