Justice Indira Banerjee Of Supreme Court Recuses From Hearing Plea On West Bengal Post-Poll Violence

Justice Indira Banerjee of the Supreme Court on Friday recused from hearing a petition seeking CBI/SIT probe into the killings of two BJP workers during the post-poll violence which happened in West Bengal.

A division Bench of Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice MR Shah was hearing a writ petition filed by Biswajit Sarkar, brother of deceased BJP member Avijit Sarkar who was allegedly killed by Trinamool Congress members during the post-poll violence in West Bengal.

As the matter was taken, Justice Banerjee, who hails from West Bengal, said "I have some difficulty in hearing this matter".

Accordingly, the matter was adjourned, directing the registry to list before a bench where Justice Banerjee is not there.

Though Solicitor General Tushar Mehta requested for the listing of the matter on coming Tuesday, the bench said that it may not be proper on its part to give any listing date as the presiding judge was recusing.

A vacation bench of Justices Vineet Saran and BR Gavai had on May 25th directed the West Bengal Government to file a counter-affidavit in the case, after being informed by the State's Counsel that FIRs have been registered by the state police in respect of both the killings, and three persons have been arrested each in both the cases based on the allegations of the complainants.

The Bench had issued notice in the case on May 25th and on an oral request made on behalf of the petitioners, it had also impleaded National Human Rights Commission, National Commission for Women, National Commission for SC/ST and National Commission for Protection of Child Rights as additional respondents in the plea.

The plea by Biswajit Sarkar has sought the constitution of a Special Investigation Team(SIT) to investigate under the monitoring of the court the alleged murder of his brother and BJP booth worker Haran Adhikari allegedly at the behest of Trinamool Congress members. The widow of Haran Adhikari is the second petitioner in the case.

The plea has further sought directions for an investigation into the acts of widespread violence which took place in West Bengal after the Trinamool Congress was elected to power for the second consecutive term on May 2.