Two Nandigram election cases might come up before courts on Monday

Kolkata, Nov 14 (IANS) The hearing of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's petition on Nandigram election results that was likely to be heard at Calcutta High Court on Monday might get deferred because a petition in the Supreme Court by Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari to transfer the case outside the state might come up for hearing on the same day.

The case was supposed to come up for hearing after a gap of nearly four months.

Legal experts are of the opinion that the High Court might defer the case and wait for the verdict of the Supreme Court. They also opine that the process of development of the Chief Minister's petition that is presently lying before the bench of Justice Shampa Sarkar might get further delayed because of the petition in the apex court.

The petition filed by Banerjee challenging the result of the Nandigram elections, where she was defeated by Adhikari by a margin of 1,965 votes and alleging manipulation was initially assigned to the bench of Justice Kaushik Chanda. However, Banerjee filed a separate petition requesting a change of the judge as he was associated with BJP legal cell before he was elevated to the bench.

However, Justice Chanda recused himself from hearing the petition but imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on the Chief Minister for "the manner in which she levelled charges against the judge".

The case was reassigned to the bench of Justice Sarkar by the then Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal, and came up for hearing in August but was adjourned till November 15.

A day after Chanda recused himself from the case, Adhikari moved the Supreme Court pleading to move the case from Calcutta High Court to any other High Court. According to sources, in the top court, the single bench of Justice Hima Kohli may hear the Nandigram vote case.

However, the Calcutta High Court has asked the Election Commission to preserve all the documents relating to the election and results of Nandigram.