The Calcutta High Court has on Wednesday imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The court has passed the directive after the Chief Minister had appealed to the court to remove Justice Kaushik Chanda from hearing her case of challenging BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari's election win in the Nandigram constituency in the recently- held assembly polls. 

The plea that was moved by Mamata Banerjee was rejected by Justice Chanda himself, against whom she filed the petition. The justice has decided not to hear the case any further and he has released the case from his bench and the bench has imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Mamata Banerjee. According to reports, Mamata Banerjee had earlier sent a letter to the acting Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court. 

In her letter, Mamata Banerjee has highlighted her opposition to Justice Chanda's appointment as a permanent judge, by citing his associations with the BJP during his days as a lawyer. As Justice Chanda had on Wednesday released the election petition of Mamata Banerjee, the matter will be referred to Acting Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal for assigning it to a different bench. 

Banerjee's counsel had earlier written to the acting Chief Justice of the High Court in which a directive was sought of reassignment of her election petition to another bench. Mamata Banerjee has claimed that Justice Chanda was an active member of the BJP till his appointment as the Additional Solicitor General of India in 2015.

The Chief Minister has said that as her petition is challenging the victory of a BJP candidate, there could be a biased hearing of the case on the bench. However, Justice Chanda has said that he was never a convenor of the BJP Legal Cell and claimed that he only appeared in the cases representing the party before the Calcutta High Court.