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Acting on the plea of senior counsel Bikash Bhattacharya and a CPI (M) leader for initiation of contempt proceedings against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed two national English dailies and two vernacular news channels to file affidavits within three weeks on the authenticity of their reports on a speech made by Banerjee on Tuesday. A division bench of Justices K.J. Sengupta and A.K. Mondal passed the directions after Bhattacharya- a former Kolkata mayor- made the oral plea before it, praying for suo motu contempt proceedings against Banerjee. He also submitted two CDs containing the recordings of television reports and also copies of the two newspapers before the court, and sought suo motu action against Banerjee. The plea stated that the chief minister, during a seminar in the Assembly on Tuesday, had allegedly made derogatory remarks about judiciary. The issue of whether any contempt proceeding would be initiated against the chief minister would come up after examination of the affidavits by the court, the bench said. Earlier in the day, a section of lawyers led by counsel Subrata Mukhopadhyay had moved the court of Chief Justice J.N. Patel and Justice Joymalyo Bagchi, seeking suo motu contempt proceedings against the chief minister. The bench refused to take up the matter suo motu and said that he could file a contempt petition before the court and the matter would be heard accordingly. The Chief Justice's bench had observed that the chief minister had expressed her personal opinion when she said, “What I am seeing, many court judgements are today delivered in return for money,” and added the judiciary was not disturbed at such alleged comments. The matter would come up for hearing after four weeks.

High Court directs media houses to file affidavits on Mamata’s comments