The Supreme Court announced today that the Attorney General for India, R Venkataramani, did not consent to charge West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with criminal contempt for her comments regarding the Supreme Court's decision in the teachers' recruitment scam case.
Aatmadeep, a public charitable trust, filed a petition with the bench of CJI BR Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran and NV Anjaria, seeking for criminal contempt against Banerjee to be brought. Following this, the concerned organisation applied to the Supreme Court to withdraw the case. The Chief Justice's Division bench granted this permission.
Live Law reported that the counsel for Aatmadeep requested the bench to allow withdrawal, as the Attorney General for India had not given consent to initiate criminal contempt. He said: "We have received instruction to withdraw the petition, the consent was applied, but the AG has not given consent."
Earlier in July, addressing the petitioner's lawyer in this case, Chief Justice BR Gavai had said, “Please fight your political battle outside this court.”
He also added, “Are you so sure that you will get the consent? Don't try to politicise before the court; your political battle, you should fight somewhere else”.
It needs to be noted that on April 3 this year, the Division Bench of then Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar of the Supreme Court had delivered the verdict in the SSC case. The Supreme Court had dismissed the entire 2016 recruitment panel of the SSC due to corruption.
Approximately 26,000 teachers and education workers lost their jobs overnight. On that very day, CM Mamata Banerjee had commented on the Supreme Court's verdict. Based on that comment, this case was filed by the organisation.