Supreme Court denied a petition demanding Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, resign in response to the rape and killing of a postgraduate medical student at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, on Tuesday.
The petitioner’s attorney was chastised by a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, for bringing up the plea, claiming that the court was not the right forum for political debates.
The petitioner’s attorney persisted in presenting his case in defiance of the bench’s explicit orders.
Chief Justice of Supreme Court Chandrachud said, “This is not a political forum, alright. You are a member of the bar. We do not require your affirmation of what we say. What you say has to abide by the rules of legal discipline… We are not here to see what you feel about a political functionary. We are dealing with the specific grievances of the doctors. If you ask me to direct that the CM should resign, that’s not part of our remit.”
“Listen to me first, otherwise I will have you removed from the court,” the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court sternly intervened. The court then adjourned the day’s proceedings.
An update on the continuing probe into suspected financial irregularities at the RG Kar Medical College, the scene of the terrible occurrence last month, was previously ordered by the Supreme Court to the CBI. The court looked over the CBI’s status report on the case and noted that revealing some information would compromise the probe.