SC moved for contempt against Mamata

A petition was filed on Thursday in the Supreme Court seeking contempt action against the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her remarks that judgements are delivered for money.

The petition filed by J&K Panthers' Party founder and senior advocate Bhim Singh alleged that Mamata's comments has the inevitable effect of "undermining" the confidence of the public in the Indian judiciary as "it tends to lower the integrity, reputation and authority" of the judicial system.

Singh, in the petition filed through counsel D K Garg, has urged the court to direct the Union government to produce the entire record relating to the speech and utterances of Mamata said to have been made by her on August 14 a the platinum jubilee celebrations of the State Legislature.

Quoting Article 129 of the Constitution, the petition said the chief minister's comments "amounts to scandalizing and have lowered the authority of the judiciary as a whole."

He said Mamata being a popular chief minister the people tend to take her words seriously.

The petition cited a number of apex court rulings to say that under Article 129 the Supreme Court has the power to punish for contempt of itself and under Article 143(2) it can investigate any such contempt.