Some Cal HC lawyers refrain from taking part in proceedings before Justice Mantha

Calcutta High Court Bar Association disowns the protest and says that the association has nothing to do with the agitation.

Kolkata:A section of lawyers at Calcutta High Court on Tuesday said they have decided to not take part in proceedings before Justice Rajasekhar Mantha after holding protests a day before outside his courtroom questioning some of his orders. The protests held outside the courtroom of Justice Mantha on Monday were taken note of by Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava who has ordered the preservation of photos and videos of the incident, a source said.

A section of the agitating lawyers said they will not participate in proceedings before the court of Justice Mantha. The court of Justice Mantha was, however, functioning normally on Tuesday with petitions being heard in a usual manner. Demanding that Justice Mantha's determination be changed, meaning that he be assigned matters on other subjects, some lawyers held protests on Monday outside his courtroom.

Some other lawyers pointed out the incident to Chief Justice Shrivastava seeking his intervention to remove the agitators to ensure free ingress and egress. The agitating lawyers were questioning some orders of Justice Mantha, including one passed in December that gave protection to Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly and BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari directing the state police not to register any more FIRs against him without the high court's permission.

Justice Mantha had also stayed all the FIRs referred to in a petition by Adhikari, wherein he claimed that 26 FIRs had been registered against him in different police stations of the state to prevent him from performing any function as a people's representative at the instance of the ruling dispensation in the state.

Calcutta High Court Bar Association president Arunabha Ghosh said on Tuesday that the association has nothing to do with the agitation. "I have told the Chief Justice that action may be taken over the issue as he deems fit," he said. Posters were also found pasted with similar allegations over some orders on the entrance door and walls of Justice Mantha's residence at Jodhpur Park area in south Kolkata as also on the walls of several other houses in the neighbourhood.

Similar protests were seen outside the courtroom of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay in April last year. Justice Gangopadhyay had, prior to the protests, ordered CBI enquiry in some cases over alleged irregularities in appointments of teaching and non-teaching staff in West Bengal government-sponsored and -aided schools. (PTI)