KOLKATA:
A state government questioning the human rights commission (HRC) chief,
who enjoys pay parity with a high court's chief justice, about his
leave of absence is unheard of. But that's the uncommon situation
Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly found himself in earlier this week when the
Mamata Banerjee government shot off a letter seeking clarifications about his recent trip to Pakistan.
The West Bengal HRC chief, who visited Karachi in the first week of June to attend a two-day seminar, sent his reply to home secretary Basudeb Banerjee on Friday. The seminar on June 4 and 5 was jointly organized by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research and the Hamdard School of Law in collaboration with the Human Rights Law Network. Besides Justice Ganguly, others invited from India as speakers were lawyers Prashant Bhushan, Mukul Sinha and Colin Gonsalves. Justice Ganguly returned to the city on June 6 and joined office from June 7.
Since he took charge in April 2012, the WBHRC has proactively taken up cases ranging from the cartoon controversy to the Kamduni rape-murder in which the government has been embarrassed. WBHRC sources felt the letter could be a sequel to that.
The home secretary's letter, which was sent on Monday, "requested" Justice Ganguly to answer five questions about his trip: whether it was official or private, what its purpose was, who funded it, whether there was any FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) violation and if prior permission was taken from the governor.
Justice Ganguly replied the trip wasn't official but was undertaken on a private invitation from Justice Nasir Alam Zahid, dean of the Hamdard School of Law, and its purpose was to attend a law seminar that covered issues like PILs, human rights and judicial activism. The funding, he said, was done by the organizers. To the poser on FCRA, he replied FCRA is applicable only to sitting judges, not retired ones (Justice Ganguly retired as a Supreme Court judge in February 2012). As for permission, he said since the tour was not an official one, the question of obtaining permission did not arise.
"The government probably cannot tolerate the no-nonsense attitude of the commission chairperson. He has never hit the headlines for the wrong reasons through his career. And this letter from the government was only to embarrass him," said a source in WBHRC.
Under Justice Ganguly, the commission has taken up a number of cases, including the arrests of Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra for forwarding a cartoon lampooning the CM and Shiladitya Chowdhury, the Belpahari resident who was branded a Maoist by the CM at a rally, in which its recommendations put the government in a tight spot. The WBHRC's findings in the Kamduni rape-murder case and SFI leader Sudipto Gupta's death in police custody also raised hackles in the government.
The commission had also taken on Trinamool Congress MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar for her comments on the Park Steet rape victim, for which the MP later apologized.
Many feel the government's letter to Ganguly was nothing but a move to keep the upright retired Supreme Court judge under leash. During his tenure as the apex court, Justice Ganguly had delivered significant judgments, including the one in the 2G spectrum scam.
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The West Bengal HRC chief, who visited Karachi in the first week of June to attend a two-day seminar, sent his reply to home secretary Basudeb Banerjee on Friday. The seminar on June 4 and 5 was jointly organized by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research and the Hamdard School of Law in collaboration with the Human Rights Law Network. Besides Justice Ganguly, others invited from India as speakers were lawyers Prashant Bhushan, Mukul Sinha and Colin Gonsalves. Justice Ganguly returned to the city on June 6 and joined office from June 7.
Since he took charge in April 2012, the WBHRC has proactively taken up cases ranging from the cartoon controversy to the Kamduni rape-murder in which the government has been embarrassed. WBHRC sources felt the letter could be a sequel to that.
The home secretary's letter, which was sent on Monday, "requested" Justice Ganguly to answer five questions about his trip: whether it was official or private, what its purpose was, who funded it, whether there was any FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) violation and if prior permission was taken from the governor.
Justice Ganguly replied the trip wasn't official but was undertaken on a private invitation from Justice Nasir Alam Zahid, dean of the Hamdard School of Law, and its purpose was to attend a law seminar that covered issues like PILs, human rights and judicial activism. The funding, he said, was done by the organizers. To the poser on FCRA, he replied FCRA is applicable only to sitting judges, not retired ones (Justice Ganguly retired as a Supreme Court judge in February 2012). As for permission, he said since the tour was not an official one, the question of obtaining permission did not arise.
"The government probably cannot tolerate the no-nonsense attitude of the commission chairperson. He has never hit the headlines for the wrong reasons through his career. And this letter from the government was only to embarrass him," said a source in WBHRC.
Under Justice Ganguly, the commission has taken up a number of cases, including the arrests of Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra for forwarding a cartoon lampooning the CM and Shiladitya Chowdhury, the Belpahari resident who was branded a Maoist by the CM at a rally, in which its recommendations put the government in a tight spot. The WBHRC's findings in the Kamduni rape-murder case and SFI leader Sudipto Gupta's death in police custody also raised hackles in the government.
The commission had also taken on Trinamool Congress MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar for her comments on the Park Steet rape victim, for which the MP later apologized.
Many feel the government's letter to Ganguly was nothing but a move to keep the upright retired Supreme Court judge under leash. During his tenure as the apex court, Justice Ganguly had delivered significant judgments, including the one in the 2G spectrum scam.
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