Narada Case: Calcutta High Court Allows Applications Filed By WB Govt, CM Mamata Banerjee For Accepting Their Affidavits
The Calcutta High Court has allowed the applications filed by State of West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and the State Law Minister Moloy Ghatak seeking acceptance of their affidavits in the Narada Scam case.The affidavits purportedly detail the law and order situation in the State (outside CBI office) on May 17, the date when the four accused TMC leaders were arrested. Delete...
The Calcutta High Court has allowed the applications filed by State of West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and the State Law Minister Moloy Ghatak seeking acceptance of their affidavits in the Narada Scam case.
The affidavits purportedly detail the law and order situation in the State (outside CBI office) on May 17, the date when the four accused TMC leaders were arrested.
Calcutta High Court allows State of West Bengal, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and Law Minister Moloy Ghatak to file their counter-affidavits in Narada case on a cost of Rs 5,000 each.@MamataOfficial @GhatakMoloy https://t.co/Vf8L6ls8kw
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) June 30, 2021
A 5-Judge Bench comprising of Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal, and Justices IP Mukherjee, Harish Tandon, Soumen Sen and Arijit Banerjee has allowed the applications subject to payment of Rs. 5,000/- by each of the applicants. Further, CBI has been granted 10 days' time to file its reply in opposititon.
The development comes after the Supreme Court set aside Calcutta High Court's order date June 9 where the Bench refused to take on record their affidavits saying that they waited for the arguments in the case to be substantially completed before seeking to place on record their pleadings in response.
The Top Court directed the legislators to file an application before the High Court stating the reasons for not filing such affidavits earlier and requested the High Court to decide the applications first before proceeding with hearing on merits.
The CBI argued that the Respondents took a calculated risk by not filing their affidavits after issuance of notice. The State on the other hand claimed that there was no delay in filing of affidavits and even otherwise, the Court must allow full facts to be presented before it.