Kolkata:
The Calcutta High Court's intervention in the Kamduni case on Thursday is the latest in a string of setbacks that the Mamata Banerjee government has received in the courts in the two weeks.
On June 24, the Supreme Court had rejected the state government's appeal against the Calcutta High Court's order of a CBI probe into a police custody death in Hooghly district in January.
On June 25, the Calcutta High Court struck down as "unconstitutional" the entry tax on commodities introduced by the state government last year.
On July 2, the Supreme Court rejected the government's appeal to reschedule the panchayat polls
On July 3, a trial court pulled up the state government's Criminal Investigation department for its shoddy chargesheet in the Kamduni rape and murder case.
On Thursday, not only did the High Court intervene in the Kamduni case, it also overturned an order by the Mamata government on newspapers that may be kept in public libraries.
In March last year, Mamata Banerjee had ordered that public libraries should stock only eight newspapers which did not include the largest circulated Bengali and English newspapers in the state.
The newspapers that were allowed in public libraries were all viewed at pro-Trinamool.
The court has given the government two weeks to include large circulation dailies in libraries. Else, the court has said it will itself strike down the government's order of March last year.
"You cannot prevent any reader from getting any knowledge from different newspapers. It clearly hits the provision of Article 19 of the Constitution of India," said lawyer Subrata Mukhopadhaya representing Basabi Roy Chowdhury who filed a PIL in April last year.
Incidentally, at least one of the newspapers recommended by Mamata Banerjee was the Bengali daily Sakalbela which was published by the now-defunct Saradha chitfund group. Sakalbela has also shut down.