The hearing on the maintainability of a PIL, challenging the D.Litt bestowed on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee by the Calcutta University (CU), was concluded in the Calcutta High Court today, a day after the honorary degree was conferred on the Trinamool Congress chief.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice J Bhattacharya and Justice Arijit Banerjee reserved its order, which will be passed on a later date.
Questioning the maintainability of the petition, state Advocate General Kishore Datta submitted that it was politically motivated and aimed at garnering media attention.
Saktinath Mukherjee, the CU counsel, stated that the petition was not justiciable and that it should be rejected forthwith.
In his submission, Mukherjee claimed that the CU senate was the final authority in deciding who would be an awardee and that anybody else was an outsider, having no authority to challenge the decision.
He submitted before the court that the achievements and eminence of a person were reason enough for being chosen for the award.
Petitioner Ranjugopal Mukherjee, a former professor of CU, had contended that the decision of the syndicate or senate did not attribute any reason for conferring the award on Banerjee and that it was arbitrary and opaque.
Banerjee was conferred the honorary D.Litt by the 161- year-old university at its convocation yesterday.
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