Becharam Manna appears before High Court

West Bengal minister Becharam Manna, against whom a contempt rule was issued for allegedly making derogatory comments against the judiciary, appeared before Calcutta High Court today and was directed to file an affidavit stating his side of the story.

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.