Mamta government has now become habituated to the rebuke it receives from the courts.

Due to policies like tampering with law and order, corruption and open appeasement for the vote bank, the Mamata Banerjee government of West Bengal has faced more rebuke from the High Court and the Supreme Court than any other state government in the country. The surprising thing is that despite the defeat and rebuke in the cases received from the courts, the Mamata government did not learn any lesson. The attitude of Mamta government has been to violate the rules and regulations of the Constitution. The opposition parties never strongly opposed this trend of the Mamata government. The courts have curbed the ever-increasing frequency of taking undue advantage of being in power. The attitude of Mamata government has been as if West Bengal is a country separate from the constitutional ambit of India.

The new case is related to the recruitment scam in local bodies in West Bengal. Like other cases, the West Bengal government has once again received a setback from the Supreme Court. The court refused to interfere in the local body matter in West Bengal. Supreme Court admits that there is link between local body recruitment and teacher recruitment scam. He is facing CBI and ED investigation in both these cases. A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud refused to grant relief to the West Bengal government’s plea challenging the CBI and ED probe into the alleged scam. The bench of CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardi Vala and Justice Manoj Mishra accepted the argument that all this could be part of a bigger conspiracy. The CBI investigation has reached a long way. Now it is not appropriate to interfere and stop it. Even before this, Mamata government has faced defeat from the Supreme Court in many other important cases including corruption. Despite the rebuke and defeat received by the Supreme Court, there was no significant improvement in the attitude of the Mamata government. Neither the working style of the government changed nor any change was seen in the Trinamool Congress. Earlier, the Supreme Court had rejected the petition of the West Bengal government to allow the appointment of the Director General of Police without the interference of UPSC. The Supreme Court had said in the DGP case that there is no need to change our previous order. The court expressed displeasure at the West Bengal government for repeatedly filing the same petition. The court had said that such applications are an abuse of the process of law.

The Supreme Court has said in an old order that every state will have to obtain a list of eligible officers from UPSC before appointing DGP. You will have to select from that list. The West Bengal government said that this system is wrong. The state government should get full right of selection. The state governments of BJP and other opposition parties did not express any objection regarding this arrangement of the Supreme Court. Like these cases, Mamata government had got a big blow from the Supreme Court in the violence that took place during the Ram Navami procession in West Bengal this year. The Supreme Court upheld the order of the Calcutta High Court. The High Court had ordered to hand over the investigation to the National Investigation Agency. This order of the Calcutta High Court was challenged in the Supreme Court by the state government. The court refused to consider the petition of the West Bengal government. Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra clearly said that we are not willing to consider the special leave petition.

In fact, the West Bengal government had criticized the High Court order to transfer the investigation to the NIA, saying that no explosives were used and the direction was passed politically. The petition was filed by leader of opposition in the state assembly, Suvendu Adhikari. On April 27, the High Court had ordered an NIA investigation into the incidents of violence during and after Ram Navami celebrations in Shibpur in Howrah and Rishra in Hooghly districts. Mamta government could not get any relief from the court in cases like challenging the law and corruption. In one such case, the government approached the court but going to the apex court did not work for the government. In a blow to Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee, the Supreme Court upheld the Enforcement Directorate’s investigation into the Bengal teachers recruitment scam of the Calcutta High Court. The Supreme Court gave this order in the hearing on the appeal of Abhishek Banerjee against the order of the Calcutta High Court. In which the High Court’s permission to ED and Central Bureau of Investigation to interrogate him in the alleged scam was challenged.

How the Mamata Banerjee government considers West Bengal as a part of the country is evident from the Supreme Court’s decision to lift the ban on the film The Kerala Story in West Bengal. The top court had said that when the film can be run in the entire country then what is the problem in West Bengal. Tamil Nadu government has also had a similar attitude. The Supreme Court had also directed the Tamil Nadu government to lift the ban on De Kerala Story. The Supreme Court had raised questions on the West Bengal government regarding the ban. CJI Chandrachud had said that it is the duty of the government to maintain law and order. It is the positive responsibility of the state to maintain law and order. In this way you can choose any 13 people in the society. If there is a law and order problem in any one district then ban the film there, those who do not want to watch it should not watch it. They will ask to ban anything. The rules cannot be used to impose on the public’s tolerance except to show sports or cartoons. Otherwise all films will find themselves in this same place.

Mamata government probably forgot that coming to power with majority does not mean that the existing constitutional system of the country can be played with. The law cannot be twisted for one’s convenience and benefit. If Mamata government had learned any lessons from its earlier defeats at the Supreme Court, it would not have faced embarrassment in such matters. The opposition parties, which are calling for unity, are not able to see the performance of the Mamata government. The opposition parties remained silent on the advice and defeat received from the courts in various cases of the Mamata government. Even in serious and sensitive matters like corruption and law and order, the opposition parties did not even raise any objection.

This is the reason why the Bharatiya Janata Party does not miss any opportunity to attack the opposition parties. The opposition parties left no stone unturned in leveling allegations of misuse of CBI and ED against the BJP government at the Centre, but the West Bengal government never felt the need to point a finger at the failure of the Supreme Court in court matters. It is certain that unless the opposition parties publicly abandon the policy of appeasement regarding corruption and law and order, they will not be able to easily gain the trust of the voters of the country in the name of unity.

-Yogendra Yogi