Tuesday, April 26 2005 20:07 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today (Apr 26, 2005) stayed the Calcutta High Court order sentencing Left Front chairman Biman Bose to three-day imprisonment for contempt.

A Bench comprising Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice Tarun Chatterjee stayed the operation of High Court order and issued notice to the petitioner Kalol Chatterjee, an advocate who had sought initiation of contempt charges in the High Court against Bose for his alleged remarks against the judiciary.

The petition was mentioned by senior advocate Fali S Nariman, who led battery of lawyers including Vikash Chatterjee and Rauf Rahim.

The High Court had held Bose guilty of contempt charge for his comment on a judgement of Justice Amitava Lala banning rallies in metropolis between 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM.

Holding Bose guilty of contempt of court, a division bench of the High Court, comprising Justice Ashoke Ganguly and Justice S P Talukdar, had also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on him on March 31.

The Bench, however, had stayed operation of the order for four weeks on a plea by Bose's counsel Bikash Bhattacharya.

Bose, a CPM (Communist Party of India-Marxist) Politburo member, had said he had not made derogatory remarks against any judge or the judiciary and the comments, vis-a-vis ban on rallies, were only in good faith.