Mamata sees a conspiracy behind 6-phase Assembly polls

March 5, 2016

Kolkata, Mar 5: The Election Commission of India’s decision to have six-phase polling in Bengal, under a security blanket of central forces, has left Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee somewhat flustered and visibly displeased.

Although she did not directly criticise the ECI, Mamata claimed to have been made a “victim of conspiracy”.

Mamata, who made public her list of candidates for the Assembly elections within a couple of hours of ECI announcing dates for the polls, expressed unhappiness with the six-phase poll schedule, compared to two phases in Assam and single phase in the remaining southern states and a union territory.

“Even a state like Assam, which experiences communal tension, will have two-phase polling. We don’t have such problems. Yet, it’s six-phase for us,” Mamata said.

“Bengal always ends up a victim of conspiracy,” she said, while announcing her list of all 294 candidates on Friday. Lashing out at the Left and Congress, who are working out an alliance to fight the polls, Banerjee called it “an immoral and unlawful alliance”. “There’s no logic in CPM and Congress contesting against each other in Kerala because they are contesting in Bengal jointly,” she said.

“We’ll contest on our own. We’ve always fought against CPM because that party believes in negativity. They believe in strikes and violence. They got the opportunity to rule for 34 years but did nothing,” she said.

Claiming that the Left and the Congress are working hand-in-glove with BJP, she said, “We’ve tried our best in the last four and a half years. They are trying to ruin our hard work. You can understand it if you analyse some of their actions.”

Mamata, who had some surprises in her list, pointed out that she will be fielding 45 women and 57 Muslims this time, compared to 31 women and 38 Muslim candidates during 2011 Assembly polls. The Trinamool list had 94 new candidates, including footballer Syed Rahim Nabi, cricketer Lakshmi Ratan Shukla, and Bengali actor Soham.

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‘Pay the worker before his sweat dries’: Madras High Court cites Prophet Muhammad’s teaching while ordering settlement of dues

News Network

December 21,2025

Invoking the teachings of Prophet Muhammad—“pay the worker before his sweat dries”—the Madras High Court has directed a municipal corporation to settle long-pending legal dues owed to a former counsel. The court observed that this principle reflects basic fairness and applies equally to labour and service-related disputes.

Justice G. R. Swaminathan made the observation while hearing a petition filed by advocate P. Thirumalai, who claimed that the Madurai City Municipal Corporation failed to pay him legal fees amounting to ₹13.05 lakh. Earlier, the High Court had asked the corporation to consider his representation. However, a later order rejected a major portion of his claim, prompting the present petition.

The court allowed Thirumalai to approach the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) and submit a list of cases in which he had appeared. It also directed the corporation to settle the verified fee bills within two months, without interest. The court noted that the petitioner had waited nearly 18 years before challenging the non-payment and that the corporation could not be fully blamed, as the fee bills were not submitted properly.

‘A Matter of Embarrassment’

Justice Swaminathan described it as a “matter of embarrassment” that the State has nearly a dozen Additional Advocate Generals. He observed that appointing too many law officers often leads to unnecessary allocation of work and frequent adjournments, as government counsel claim that senior officers are engaged elsewhere.

He expressed hope that such practices would end at least in the Madurai Bench of the High Court and added that Additional Advocate Generals should “turn a new leaf” from 2026 onwards.

‘Scandalously High Amounts’

While stating that the court cannot examine the exact fees paid to senior counsel or law officers, Justice Swaminathan stressed that good governance requires public funds to be used prudently. He expressed concern over the “scandalously high amounts” paid by government and quasi-government bodies to a few favoured law officers.

In contrast, the court noted that Thirumalai’s total claim was “a pittance” considering the large number of cases he had handled.

Background

Thirumalai served as the standing counsel for the Madurai City Municipal Corporation for more than 14 years, from 1992 to 2006. During this period, he represented the corporation in about 818 cases before the Madurai District Courts.

As the former counsel was unable to hire a clerk to obtain certified copies of judgments in all 818 cases, the court directed the District Legal Services Authority to collect the certified copies within two months. The court further ordered the corporation to bear the cost incurred by the DLSA and deduct that amount from the final settlement payable to the petitioner.

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