Supreme Court of India
Kolkata: Supreme Court on Monday let Congress’s Nandigram candidate Milan Pradhan to contest the bypolls, a day ahead of the polls, and adjourned Bengal govt’s plea challenging the Calcutta High Court’s interim bail to Pradhan for hearing to Oct 7, a day after the elections. Pradhan was granted bail on Sept 29 for three weeks by a Calcutta HC bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh. The HC had noted that Pradhan was not in custody when he filed his nomination and that the state had 19 years to execute the warrants against him.
“Action should be taken against those police officers,” the CJI said. To this, CJI Surya Kant observed that the system must ensure accountability and action shouldn’t be taken “suddenly, when someone wants to contest elections.
Because he had represented some of the parties in the underlying case during his legal practice, justice Bagchi recused himself citing a conflict of interest. The matter came up for hearing before a bench of CJI Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana.