Becharam Manna appears before HC

A division bench comprising Justice Pratap Kumar Roy and Justice Subol Baidya also directed the lawyers who moved the plea to file their affidavit in reply within another week.

The matter would come up for hearing after six weeks, the court directed.

The court had on December four taken note of the comments allegedly made by Manna, Minister of State for Agriculture, on its order on the disputed land at Singur, the site of the now defunct Tata Motors Nano car plant, and had directed him to appear before it today.

Senior counsel Bikash Bhattacharya had brought Manna's alleged comments, published in newspapers and telecast on TV news channels, to the court's notice and had prayed for issue of suo motu contempt rule against the minister.

Bhattacharya claimed that Manna had during a public meeting to observe 'Singur Divas' on December 2 at Beraberi market in Singur made the alleged derogatory comments against the judiciary with regard to an order of the high court

The division bench after hearing Bhattacharya and going through the documents produced by him had directed that contempt rule be issued against Manna. MORE