Narada case: HC says its order will be binding on all

The Calcutta High Court today said its order would be binding on all irrespective of who was doing what, as the petitioner in the Narada sting case drew its attention over West Bengal government's decision to hold an enquiry despite the matter being pending before the court.
A division bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice A Banerjee said it does not matter what anyone is saying or doing and the court's order in the issue would be binding on all.
The bench said that if anyone was aggrieved over it, he or she may move a higher court.

The observation of the court came after counsel Bikash Bhattacharya for the petitioner moved the bench drawing its attention over the state government's decision to hold a probe by Kolkata Police into the sting operation despite the matter being pending before the court.
The government counsel, when asked by the bench as to what he had to say in this regard, said as he had not been informed earlier by the petitioner or his counsel about today's move, he was not prepared.
The chief justice directed him to take instructions from the government by Friday, when the matter would be taken up for hearing in connection with the petition that sought establishment of genuineness of the tapes and an investigation into the matter thereof.

The division bench had on April 29 ordered the director of Central Forensic Sciences Laboratory at Hyderabad to make preliminary inquiry to find out whether the devices used in the 'sting' and the recordings were tampered, engineered, doctored or genuine.

It directed the CFSL to complete the analysis within four weeks of being given the recordings and devices - an iPhone, a laptop and a pen drive in which the recordings are stored. The court observed that as a preliminary step it has to first ascertain whether the devices are tampered, engineered, doctored or genuine.
The purported recordings, which were released by Narada News a few days after elections to the West Bengal Assembly were announced, show Trinamool Congress MPs and state ministers allegedly taking money.

The court said as per Narada News editor-in-chief Mathew Samuel's affidavit, the alleged sting was recorded on an iPhone. The recordings were then transferred to a laptop before being transferred into a pen drive.