Calcutta High Court orders for impleadment of parties on 8th May 2019 hearing [Read the Order]

1. The Bar Council of West Bengal, represented by its Chairman and Secretary, are impleaded as additional respondents.
2. Tanushree Das is added as a party respondent.
3. The matter be listed on 10th May, 2019 for consideration of any application for impleadment by Howrah Bar Association.

Dated: 08.05.2019

serial no. 1
AB/ S DE

WP 9313 [W] of 2019
With
CAN 4728 of 2019
With
W. P. 150 of 2018

In re: The Court on its own Motion
And
1. Registrar General, Calcutta High Court
2. District Judge, Howrah
3. Chief Judicial Magistrate, Howrah
4. Union of India, represented by Additional Solicitor General,
5. State of West Bengal, represented by Advocate-General,
6. Chief Secretary, Government of West Bengal,
7. Secretary, Home Department, Government of West Bengal,
8. Director General of Police, State of West Bengal,
9. Commissioner of Police, Howrah Police Commissionerate,
10. Commissioner of Howrah Municipal Corporation,
11. Station House Officer (SHO), Howrah

Counsel for the Parties :

Mr. Kishore Dutta, ld. AG,
Mr. Abhrotosh Majumdar, ld. AAG,
… …For the State

Mr. S. K. Kapoor, Sr. Advocate,
Mr. L. K. Gupta, Sr. Advocate,
Mr. Saptangshu Basu, ld. sr. adv.
Mr. Ajay Chatterjee,
Mr. Subir Sanyal
Mr. Subhasish Chakraborty
Mr. Aniruddha Chatterjee,
Mr. Arindam Ganguly,
Mr. Samim Ahmed
Mr. Achin Jana
Mr. Ashoke Das,
Mr. Ratul Biswas,
Mr. Soumya Basu Roychowdhury,
Mr. Srijan Dutta,
Mr. Amit Chowdhury,
Ms. Sushmita Kumari Singh,
Mr. Sabyasachi Chatterjee,
… …For the Howrah Bar Association

Mr. Imtiaz Ahmed
Mr. Subhajit Bal
Mr. Sumeet Chaudhury
Mr. A. Sarkar
Mr. Aniruddha Sarkar,
…… …For the Bar Association, High Court, Calcutta

Mr. Ashish Kr. Sanyal,
Mr. Rajendra Banerjee,
Mr. Rohit Kumar Sahu,
Ms. Susmita Saha Dutta,
Mr. Saikat Saha Banik,
Mr. Niladri Saha,
Ms. D. Nag,
Mr. Amrit Lal Dhar,
….For the Proposed Added Respondent

Applicant in CAN 4728 of 2019.

Mr. Samrajit Dasgupta,
Ms. Debjani Ghoshal
…For the Union of India.

Mr. Jaydeep Kar, sr. adv.
Mr. Siddhartha Banerjee
.. …For the Registrar General, High Court, Calcutta

In re : W. P. No.9313 (W) of 2019

The Bar Council of West Bengal is a necessary party for due consideration of this suo motu Public Interest Litigation. Hence, the Bar Council of West Bengal, represented by its Chairman and Secretary, are impleaded as additional respondents.

Issue notice by hand to the said persons. The Bar Council will file its affidavit by 13.5.2019.

Registry is directed to issue notice in the course of the day.

Mr. Kapoor, learned senior counsel representing the Howrah Bar submits that certain officials of the Police Department have been named in his client’s impleadment application and that they may be impleaded.

We see that the applicant does not seek their impleadment. We are not persuaded to act merely on the basis of such submission without any application, particularly when the learned Advocate General, quite rightly, objected to the impleadment being made even without an application to which the persons who are sought to be impleaded may respond.

Hence, the Howrah Bar Representative is permitted to file application seeking impleadment of parties, if so advised. Mr. Kapoor further submits that he has made reference to certain documents in the form of photographs and video recordings and they are being presented before this court. He may do so subject to objections which are being raised by the learned Advocate General and other parties, in a sealed cover signed by the advocate on record representing the Howrah Bar.

Learned counsel appearing for the Howrah Bar submits that an application for impleadment is proposed and it will be placed for consideration before this court on 10.5.2019.

Learned Advocate General submits that since the Bar Council is due to meet in the evening on 10th May, 2019, it would be better if the matter be listed on 13th May, 2019.

Let this matter be listed on 10th May, 2019 for consideration of any application for impleadment that the Howrah Bar may present and for any other matter which the Court permits to be taken up on that day.

The State Government officials will provide copies of affidavits placed on record to the learned counsel for the Central Government.

In re : CAN 4728 of 2019.

This is an application by Tanushree Das, claiming to be a member of the Howrah Bar, who says that she was injured in the incident in the Howrah Court Premises on 24th April, 2019. We have heard learned counsel for the said applicant. Learned Advocate General objects to this application by saying that the Howrah Bar Association being already represented, no individual member should be separately allowed to ventilate his /her case.

We have considered the contents of the application. Allegations are made by the applicant, Tanushree Das, pointing out the injuries that she suffered. She also made reference to laws governing safety and security of women at places of work.

Under such circumstances, we treat this as a special case and allow impleadment. The applicant, Tanushree Das is added as a party respondent in W.P. No.9313 [W] of 2019.

This order is not to be treated as a precedent for impleadment of any and every member of the Bar and we clarify that we are passing this order in view of the specific allegations made in the impleadment application.

The application being CAN 4728 of 2019 is, accordingly, disposed of.

[Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan, C.J]
[Arijt Banerjee, J]