For initiating contempt proceedings in the Supreme Court under Section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act, one is required to obtain the consent of the Attorney General
New Delhi: A petition seeking contempt proceedings against West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in connection with the teacher recruitment case was withdrawn from the Supreme Court on Thursday after the Attorney General (AG) refused to grant consent, a mandatory prerequisite for filing such a plea.
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan R. Gavai and justice K. Vinod Chandran allowed the petition to be withdrawn after the petitioner, Aatmadeep, a charitable trust, informed the court that the AG had refused to grant consent.
“I have received instruction to withdraw the present contempt petition. The petitioner had written to the AG seeking consent but consent has not been given,” advocate Ayush Anand, appearing for the petitioner, said.
The organisation had accused the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo of committing contempt of court over her remarks against the judgment delivered by the top court earlier this year cancelling the recruitment of over 25,000 teachers in state schools in connection with the West Bengal teacher recruitment case.
The bench, headed by the CJI, had lashed out at the organisation that filed the petition for bringing electoral battles to courts in July. “You must fight your political battles somewhere else, not before the courts,” the bench had then observed, accusing the petitioner of politicising the matter.
During the last hearing, the lawyers appearing for Aatmadeep informed the court that a request had been made to the office of the AG seeking consent to proceed with the matter. For initiating contempt proceedings in the Supreme Court under Section 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act, one is required to obtain the consent of the Attorney General under Rule 3(c) of the Rules to Regulate Proceedings for Contempt of Supreme Court, 1975.
On this ground, the matter was adjourned by four weeks on July 21. Last month, the office of the AG responded to the letter filed by the petitioner, refusing to grant sanction.
The top court on April 3 had set aside over 25,000 teacher recruitments in the state carried out in 2016 on the ground that the entire selection process stood “vitiated and tainted beyond resolution.”
“The credibility and legitimacy of the selection process have been denuded,” the court said, setting aside the entire recruitment (including the untainted candidates) after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which probed the illegalities, highlighted manipulations made to benefit candidates who allegedly paid bribes to TMC leaders to secure the jobs. Merit was disregarded, according to the CBI, which found that some selected candidates had submitted blank Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets, while rank jumping was observed in other cases, providing clear evidence of fraud in the public recruitment process.
Soon after the judgment, CM Banerjee had questioned the top court by saying, “Who has the right to take anyone’s job? No one. You can put me in jail for saying this but I don’t care.” She had further alleged that there is a conspiracy to malign the education system in the state and questioned the decision for painting all the teachers with the same brush.
The petitioner before the top court alleged that the remarks by the chief minister undermine judicial authority, causing disrepute to the institution and diminishing faith among the public in the administration of justice.
