The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday declined to itself initiate contempt proceedings against West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee but stressed that the reprieve ‘should not be taken as approval of her statements’. A division bench of Chief Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, while refusing to initiate the proceedings, observed: ‘The chief minister’s speech is not one which transcends the Lakshmana Rekha of scandalising the court or obstructing the administration of justice or interfering in the due course of judicial proceeding.’ ‘We are therefore unwilling to suo moto invoke our power to initiate a proceeding for contempt in respect of the aforesaid imputations,’ read the order.