Calcutta High Court directed the Kolkata Police commissioner to arrest the 6 persons, identified to have defaced the walls around HC Justice Rajasekhar Mantha’s south Kolkata home on January 9, and present them in the High Court during the next hearing on March 27.

The Court also asked the Calcutta High Court Bar Association president to submit the names of lawyers, who had staged an agitation in front of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha’s court in a flash stir on January 9. A larger bench of the High Court, comprising Justice T S Sivagnanam, Justice I P Mukerji and Justice Chittaranjan Dash, on Wednesday gave the directions after being told that the 6 accused, who had plastered posters on walls near Justice Mantha’s Jodhpur Park residence, had been traced. The bench on Wednesday directed association president Arunava Ghosh to submit the names of the agitating lawyers on March 27.

Ghosh submitted to the bench that the Calcutta High Court Bar Association didn’t want to embarrass its members after watching CCTV footage of that day. The bench directed Ghosh to submit the names to the court in a sealed envelope on March 27.

During an earlier hearing of the matter, the larger bench had held that identification was necessary in a criminal contempt proceeding. Justice Mantha had initiated the contempt proceedings but didn’t name the lawyers involved. “If you fail to identify them, the court is not powerless. Don’t turn it into a political platform,” Justice Sivagnanam had said. Justice Mukerji during the last hearing had turned down lawyer Bikash Bhattacharya’s prayer to direct the HC registrar general to identify the protesting lawyers from CCTV footage.

Justice Dash had taken serious note of posters outside Justice Mantha’s residence. Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava had constituted the three-judges bench to hear the contempt proceedings initiated by Justice Mantha.

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