HC rejects plea to pause proceedings after Advocate General exit

MP, May 6, 2026, Kolkata: At a time when West Bengal Advocate General Kishore Datta tendered his resignation to the Governor, the Calcutta High Court was moved with a plea seeking a pause on orders involving the state due to the absence of a functional government legal panel after the change of regime.

Hearing a mention before him, Justice Krishna Rao expressed disapproval of the suggestion that judicial work be effectively stalled until a new panel of state lawyers is constituted.

The request came in the backdrop of a change in the ruling dispensation following the Assembly election results, which has rendered the existing panel’s role uncertain.

“Three weeks…it’s better to close the court,” the judge remarked, underscoring the impracticality of halting proceedings.

He added that if such a position were to be accepted, the matter should be placed before Chief Justice Sujoy Paul to consider shutting the court altogether for the interim period.

The courtroom exchange came hours after Datta tendered his resignation to the Governor’s office, a day after the electoral defeat of the Trinamool Congress.

His exit marks the second time in recent years that the state’s top law officer has stepped down amid shifting political and legal circumstances.

Datta, who served two terms as Advocate General during the Trinamool Congress regime, had earlier succeeded Soumendranath Mukherjee in November 2023. Mukherjee’s resignation had followed a series of setbacks for the state government in the High Court.

The latest developments have once again spotlighted the close interplay between political transitions and the functioning of the state’s legal machinery, with the court making it clear that judicial business cannot be held hostage to administrative delays.