Hearing on contempt proceedings plea against Mamata Banerjee on September 26

KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court today examined affidavits filed by four media houses in connection with a plea for contempt proceedings against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for allegedly making derogatory remarks about judiciary.

After going through the affidavits, a division bench comprising Justice K J Sengupta and Justice A K Mondal directed that the issue of whether contempt proceeding would be initiated against Banerjee or maintainability of the plea would come up before hearing on September 26.

On the plea by senior counsel Bikash Bhattacharya, a CPI(M) leader and former Mayor of Kolkata, the division bench had on August 16 directed two national English dailies and two vernacular news channels to file affidavits within three weeks on the authenticity of their reports on a speech made by Banerjee on August 14.

Bhattacharya had made the oral plea before the bench praying for suo motu contempt proceedings against Banerjee, stating that the chief minister had allegedly made derogatory remarks about judiciary during a seminar in the Assembly.

He had also submitted two CDs containing recordings of television reports and copies of the two newspapers before the court and sought suo motu action against Banerjee.