KOLKATA:In an interesting development, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed at the Calcutta High Court for the removal of the governor from his unconstitutional post. The PIL is likely to come up for hearing on Friday before Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava.
The petition filed by lawyer Rama Prasad Sarkar said that Governor Jagdeep Dhankahr is going beyond the purview of the Constitution and is indulging in unconstitutional activities.
According to some senior lawyers, this is perhaps the first case in Calcutta High Court when a petition has been filed for the removal of the governor.
The governor and the state government have always been in conflict with each other. There are several occasions when governor Jagdeep Dhankahr has gone against the state's decisions and criticised them publicly. The conflict went to such an extent that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote to the President and the Prime Minister asking them for the removal of the governor. Recently during the Lok Sabha session, Trinamool Congress complained against the governor and asked for his removal.
According to Sarkar, the governor has been unconstitutionally criticising the state government and its working as the spokesperson of a political party. He has issued statements that are unconstitutional.
Though the governor is indirectly involved in the case, he has not been made a party to the case. Notices have already been served to other stakeholders in the case.
The conflict between the Governor and the state government went to such an extent that Mamata Banerjee had recently announced that she had blocked Dhankhar on Twitter. "He has been continuously criticising us and has been issuing statements against the state government. He is behaving in such a way as if we are his bonded labourers. This is unconstitutional and he is going out of the jurisdiction of the constitution to create problems for us. This cannot continue, " the chief minister had said.