Kolkata, Sep 6: A division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed all parties in the PIL on the growth of properties of the family members of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to file affidavits on the merits of the acceptability of the petition.
The counsel representing the family members of the Chief Minister argued that the petition is not admissible since the petitioner, Tarunjyoti Tiwari, besides being an advocate, is also an active member of the BJP and hence his petition was motivated.
The PIL filed by Tiwari, however, does not include the names of Mamata Banerjee or her nephew and Trinamool Congress national General Secretary, Abhishek Banerjee.
In his argument, Tiwari said that the Chief Minister’s sister-in-law, Kajori Banerjee, who is also a councillor with the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, had sited both business and social work as her profession. Tiwari argued that the PIL is aimed at knowing the exact source of her income.
After hearing both sides, the bench of Chief Justice Prakash Srivastav and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj directed both the parties to file their respective arguments on the admissibility of the PIL by November 11. The next date of hearing has been fixed on November 28.
Soon after the PIL was filed, Mamata Banerjee had made some comments on the matter at a press conference on August 31. She had said that if anyone can trace any property in her name or in the name of her family members involving illegal encroachment of government land, that person will have the liberty to demolish the property using a bulldozer.
“Even my permission will not be required for that. I have asked the chief secretary to conduct an independent probe in the matter. If there is a single allegation against any member of my family of illegally occupying government land, that family member concerned will be answerable,” the Chief Minister had said.
Banerjee had also said that she does not stay with her other family members.
“They stay separately like nuclear family units. We just get together on social occasions,” Banerjee had said.
