A school in the making for future judges learnt the hard way that syndicates in Bengal know no law.

At the construction site of the proposed West Bengal Judicial Academy in New Town, workers were beaten up and materials stolen because the contractors had made the mistake of thinking their association with such a project would guarantee immunity from syndicates.

The Trinamul leader whose loyalists stand accused of carrying out the assault one-and-a-half years ago has gone on to become the mayor of the new Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation.

Justice Dipankar Datta of Calcutta High Court was prompted to reference that incident while hearing a petition on Monday filed by a realtor whose housing project in Maheshtala has run into syndicate trouble.

"Ask your police to take strong measures against such syndicate raj. The situation is so alarming that members of syndicates are not even sparing Calcutta High Court," Justice Datta told the state government's lawyer. "Calcutta High Court has been facing similar problems while constructing court buildings at Salt Lake and Asansol..."

Located near Hazra Kalitala, around 2km from the Tata Medical Center and close to the proposed second campus of St. Xavier's College, the judicial academy is coming up on a five-acre plot. The layout includes an academic block, a hostel for trainee judges and quarters for employees.

A source in the state public works department (PWD) said a judge who had visited the project site in the wake of the disruptions couldn't believe that syndicates could target the judiciary too. "If we (judges) face this, what will happen to ordinary people?" the judge was quoted as saying at a meeting with police officers.

The harassment had started when a city-based firm contracted to build the academic block bypassed the local syndicate while buying construction materials for the 12-storey structure. The firm lodged a police complaint after repeated thefts and the assault on its workers, an unusual step for any contractor working in New Town. A PWD official said the contractor might have summoned the courage to go to the police only because the work was being supervised by a high court committee that includes judges.

The project hasn't faced trouble since, but the realtor who is struggling with his project in Maheshtala might not be as lucky. Most contractors are known to arrive at an "arrangement" with syndicates, a euphemism for kowtowing to their whims.

The word "syndicate" itself is a colloquialism for cartels run with alleged political backing. They force contractors to buy building materials of dubious quality at higher prices than they would otherwise pay. These syndicates are the preserve - a fig leaf even - of an unemployed generation in a state without much industrial activity.

Frequent clashes between rival syndicates are common in New Town, a realty bubble built on the promise of big-ticket IT investment that has yet to come. The factions are allegedly controlled by Rajarhat-New Town MLA Sabyasachi Dutta and Barasat MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar.

Dutta, who is also the mayor of Bidhannagar, contested the allegation that the syndicate members who had targeted the judicial academy were his men. "I do not know anything about this. Whoever is taking my name is lying. It is a lie, plain and simple," he said.

Barasat MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar too denied having anything to do with syndicates. "I am not part of any syndicate. There are some local people who create trouble, but this has nothing to do with the party," she said.

Mohammed Ismile, the realtor in the line of fire at Maheshtala in South 24-Parganas, fell foul of the syndicate there because he didn't buy materials from them.

According to his petition, the syndicate refused to let construction commence before he made an advance payment and also barred him from buying from any other supplier.