A high court judge has ordered Trinamul MLA and councillor Smita Bakshi to appear before him and explain why she had failed to get garbage removed from in front of a Burrabazar resident's house despite being twice ordered to do so.
Bakshi, who represents Jorasanko in the Assembly and is chairperson of borough IV of the civic body, will have to appear before Justice Sambuddha Chakrabarti on Friday.
Suresh Kumar Kanoi had on November 1, 2012, moved court saying the civic authorities kept dumping garbage outside his house despite repeated complaints to the local councillor and borough IV chairperson Bakshi. Kanoi sought the court's intervention to get the problem solved.
Justice Chakrabarti heard the matter and ordered Bakshi the next day to ensure that the garbage was removed from in front of the petitioner's house.
"The order, however, was not carried out and garbage continued to be dumped outside the petitioner's house. Kanoi approached the Calcutta Municipal Corporation headquarters but that did not yield any result, too," a court source quoted Kanoi's counsel Debashis Saha as saying.
Kanoi filed a second petition in the high court in February 2013. The court passed an order similar to the one issued the previous year but this, too, was not carried out.
Kanoi's third petition came up for hearing on Thursday. His counsel submitted before Justice Chakrabarti that earlier orders on removal of garbage had not been carried out. The judge then ordered Bakshi to attend the court on Friday.
"The court would ask her why contempt proceedings should not be drawn against her for flouting the court order twice," a senior high court lawyer said.
If proved guilty, Bakshi can be charged under section 2(b) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. The punishment under the section is simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months or fine or both.
When contacted over phone at 8.45pm, Bakshi said she was busy attending election meetings and asked the correspondent to call later. The subsequent calls went unanswered.
