Calcutta HC Chief Justice asks district judges to install metal detectors at court entrances

Kolkata: Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Ravindra Vithalrao Ghuge has written letters to all the district judges to ensure the installation of metal detectors at the entrances of all district courts in West Bengal at the earliest.

In the letter, Chief Justice Ghuge has also said that all advocates, court staff and commoners coming to the courts for different purposes should mandatorily pass through the metal detector gates before entering the court premises.

The communication from the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice has come amid recent instances of attacks on advocates at various district court premises in the state. In the case of Senior Advocate and former CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member, Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya, there was an attack at his residence at Purbalok in Jadavpur area in South Kolkata last week.

In the same communication from the Chief Justice Ghuge to the different district judges, suggesting enforcement of a ban on smoking and the sale and consumption of smoking items, betel leaves and pan masala within the court premises.

However, a section of advocates raised the demand to set up a separate smoking corner for them within each court premise.

In his letter to the district court judges, the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice has also advised that the Bar Council of West Bengal and the Bar Association should mutually discuss how his proposals could be implemented.

Chief Justice Ghuge said that after making a decision jointly in the matter, his office should be intimated in writing and henceforth issue written instructions in such matters.

Last week, Calcutta High Court’s Chief Justice Ghuge and Justice Om Narayan Rai expressed serious concern over the instances of attacks on the advocates within the court premises. Chief Justice Ghuge also directed the state government to submit a report to the court on the actions taken in the matter.

Earlier, following the instructions of the same bench, the Calcutta High Court had also initiated a suo motu case over the recent egg attack on advocate and CPI(M) leader, Sayan Banerjee, at a district court in the South 24 Parganas district.

The Division Bench also strongly condemned the egg attack on Banerjee. Chief Justice Ghuge observed that while a lawyer was attacked now, in future anyone else could have been attacked in a similar

According to Justice Ghuge, the incident was unacceptable in any way and recurrence of such events should be stopped.

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