The Calcutta High Court today appointed Justice (R) Manjula Chellur as the retired judge who would monitor the probe conducted by SIT for post-poll violence in Bengal.
In last month's judgment, the five-member bench had ruled that the SIT, comprising of senior police officers of the state, would be supervised by a retired supreme court judge.
But Chief Justice (Acting) of Calcutta High Court today said that as no retired supreme court judge was available to take up the job, the High Court-appointed Justice (R) Chellur, retired chief justice of two High Courts, as supervisor of the SIT.
Sources said no retired SC judge was eager to accept such an offer which would have huge political ramifications in the state and national politics when Mamata Banerjee is trying to portray as a face against Narendra Modi.
In Kolkata, Justice (R) A K Ganguly was also apparently approached. But he also did not like to monitor the investigation of SIT. Though SIT would probe the cases of apparently mild, as the gruesome incidents of violence is being probed by CBI, but, the investigation is going to be politically significant. Mamata Banerjee government recently formed ten-member IPS officers who would carry out the investigations which would be headed by DG, Communication, Suman Bala Sahoo. CBI has filed 42 cases so far on gruesome incidents of post-poll violence.
Justice Chellur was chief justice of Calcutta High Court before being moved to Mumbai as chief justice of Bombay High Court. She retired as chief justice of Bombay High Court. As per rules of the Calcutta High Court, the state government would pay justice Chellur Rs 10 lakh for the assignment given to justice Chellur.
The Chief Secretary would arrange all the facilities and protocol needed by Chellur like travel and accommodation befitting to chief justice. The court said, "She has graciously accepted the assignment.”
Her tenure in Kolkata was eventful as she handled many important cases including Ponzi scams. Known to be an upright judge, Chellur had gone down as one of the toughest judges the Calcutta High Court has ever seen in recent times.
Interestingly, she succeeded Justice Arun Kumar Mishra as Calcutta High Court's chief justice when justice Mishra moved to Supreme Court. What's more interesting is, Justice Mishra is today heading the national human rights commission which primarily investigated the post-poll violence in Bengal as being asked by Calcutta High Court.
It is not known whether justice Chellur will have an office in Kolkata or she would work from Bangaluru, where she is currently staying. But, as Kolkata legal circle says, "coming days are going to be interesting".