The Supreme Court on January 29 transferred from the Calcutta High Court to itself a case of candidates rampantly gaining medical admissions with the help of fake caste certificates in West Bengal after conflicting orders led to one Calcutta High Court judge slinging mud on another.
A five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud and four seniormost judges had to take suo motu cognisance of the happenings in the Calcutta High Court and convened on January 27 to stay proceedings in the High Court in the case.
The trajectory of the case took an ugly turn when one of the judges, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, sitting as a Single Judge Bench, made personal allegations of political bias against Justice Soumen Sen, who presided over the Division Bench which stayed the former’s order to transfer the medical admissions case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The five-judge Bench led by the Chief Justice Chandrachud on January 29 directed the transferred case to be listed before it after three weeks.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, for the West Bengal government, drew attention to fact that Justice Gangopadhyay had made personal comments in his judicial order against Justice Sen. He had accused Justice Sen of using his office to “act” in favour of the ruling dispensation in West Bengal.
“The learned judge continues to take matters of this kind. He will continue to do such things in future also... You have to intervene,” Mr. Sibal submitted.
Restraint necessary: CJI
The Chief Justice cut short Mr. Sibal, saying “you have made your point”. Chief Justice Chandrachud said it did not want to comment on the orders of either the Single Judge or the Division Bench of the High Court. Restraint was necessary as the dignity of the institution of the High Court had to be protected, he said.
“Anything we say here should not impinge upon the dignity of the institution,” Chief Justice Chandrachud observed.
Mr. Sibal said he [Justice Gangopadhyay] was even “attending rallies”.
Job-for-bribe scam case
Senior advocate A.M. Singhvi interjected to obliquely draw attention to the fact that the Supreme Court had to similarly intervene in April last year in orders passed by Justice Gangopadhyay in connection with the sensational and politically sensitive West Bengal school job-for-bribe scam case.
Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee had moved the top court at the time against a TV interview given by Justice Gangopadhyay in which the latter made comments about the case when it was sub judice before him. The Supreme Court had, after going through the transcript of the interview, ordered the case to be transferred from Justice Gangopadhyay. But, in a rather unusual turn of events, Justice Gangopadhyay subsequently passed an order directing the Secretary General of the Supreme Court to place before him by midnight the records which were placed before the Supreme Court leading to the re-assignment of the case from him. A Special Bench of the Supreme Court led by Justice A.S. Bopanna had quickly convened the same night to stay Justice Gangopadhyay’s order.
Mr. Singhvi said such conduct would “bring disrepute to the judiciary”.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, for the Centre, indicated there were “shocking facts to relate on every side”.
The Supreme Court declined a plea to intervene in the allocation of cases to Justice Gangopadhyay, saying that was entirely the domain of the Chief Justice of the High Court of Calcutta.
“The Chief Justice of the High Court is in charge of assigning cases to judges. We do not want to arrogate that power of the Chief Justice,” Chief Justice Chandrachud responded.
