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Court imposes Rs 5 lakh fine on Mamata Banerjee

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Guwahati: Mamata Banerjee was today fined ₹ 5 lakh by Calcutta High Court judge Kaushik Chanda, who exited a case involving her petition challenging the election of the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari. The Bengal Chief Minister had asked the judge to quit the case over “conflict of interest”.

Before exiting the case, the judge made a series of angry observations, accusing Ms Banerjee of a “preplanned move to malign a judge” and of violating her constitutional duty.

“Such calculative, psychological and offensive attempt to seek recusal need to be firmly repulsed and a cost of ₹ 5 lakh is imposed upon Petitioner,” Justice Chanda said in the order.

Mamata Banerjee wanted the case to be reassigned to a different court as she alleged Justice Chanda has links with the BJP and would be biased. The case will now be referred to Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal, who has to reassign it.

Ms. Banerjee’s petition challenges the election result in Bengal’s Nandigram, where she lost to Suvendu Adhikari, her former aide-turned-BJP leader.

102CommentsThe Nandigram loss was the lone disappointment for the Chief Minister as her Trinamool Congress won a landslide victory in Bengal in the April-May election, retaining power for the second time.

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