SC to hold special sitting today after Calcutta HC judge accused fellow judge of ‘acting for political party’

On Thursday, a single-judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the Calcutta High Court had directed that a CBI investigation ordered into alleged irregularities in MBBS admissions in the state will continue, despite an order of a division bench to the contrary.

In the written order, he levelled accusations against a fellow judge, Justice Soumen Sen.

When contacted, Justice Sen declined to comment.

Justice Gangopadhyay had Wednesday ordered a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in admission of MBBS candidates in state-run medical colleges and hospitals. However, the state government moved the division bench of Justices Sen and Uday Kumar, which ordered an interim stay on the single-bench order. The state government had made a verbal appeal before the division bench, which admitted the petition.

In his written order, Justice Gangopadhyay wrote, “Now I have to do something which is though unusual, but unless I do this, I think I will fail in my duty to hold the sanctity of judiciary in general and this court in particular. It is fully in respect of His Lordship, the Hon’ble Justice Soumen Sen”.

“I was told some days back by Justice Amrita Sinha that Justice Sen called her in his chamber on the last day before vacation, and like a political leader, he dictated Justice Sinha three things: i) Mr. Avishek Banerjee has a political future, he should not be disturbed; ii) Live-streaming shall be stopped in Justice Sinha’s court; iii) The two writ petitions before Justice Sinha, where the name of Mr. Avishek Banerjee is involved, are to be dismissed,” the order continued.

“Justice Sinha intimated this to me over telephone in vacation. Subsequently, Justice Sinha reported it to the Hon’ble Chief Justice of this High Court and I was told that the Hon’ble Chief Justice of this court has communicated this to the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India,” he added in the order.

Justice Gangopadhyay added, “Thus, Justice Sen is acting clearly for some political party in this State and, therefore, the orders passed in matters involving the State are required to be relooked if the Hon’ble Supreme Court thinks so.”

Since 2022, Justice Gangopadhyay has ordered CBI probes in teacher recruitment scams and alleged irregularities in the recruitment process in the state. The investigations led to the arrest of former TMC minister Partha Chatterjee, senior officials, and recovery and seizure of movable and immovable property worth over Rs 100 crore.

On September 20, 2022, he gave an interview to a Bengali television news channel where he criticised the state government and the Trinamool Congress.

The matter subsequently reached the Supreme Court, which asked the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court to reassign cases in school jobs scam from Justice Gangopadhyay to another judge. The SC also observed that judges cannot give interviews on pending cases.

Justice Gangopadhyay’s order from Thursday further states: “Today I am told by the Learned Advocates that Justice Sen has quashed the FIR already lodged by CBI, and called the Registrar General (Acting)… to know how the order of the Single Bench, despite stay order passed by the Division Bench, was communicated to CBI. In my order there was a clear direction in this regard.”

“What Justice Sen has done today is to advance the cause of his personal interest to save some political party in power in this State. Therefore, his actions clearly tantamount to misconduct,” Justice Gangopadhyay said in his order.

“I want to request the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India to look into… the matter as recorded above, that is, calling one Judge in his chamber and to dictate (to) her something, which is nothing but interference with the course of justice,” he said in the order and directed “the Registrar General to send a copy of this order to the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India and to give a copy of this order to the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of this court.”

Justice Gangopadhyay further stated that “I am of the view that the order passed by Justice Sen’s Division Bench quashing the FIR today is not a valid order because it is a continuation of an appeal void ab initio and he has acted against the law with his own interest as has been indicated above. In the order passed by the Division Bench, I repeat, there is no recording as to the urgency of the matter. I do not know whether sky was falling upon some persons by order of CBI enquiry. Therefore, the FIR should remain intact because Justice Sen’s Division Bench’s order is wholly illegal and has to be ignored. CBI should start acting by investigating into the matter”.

Meanwhile, late Thursday evening, the Calcutta High Court came out with a new roster for the judges. According to the new roster, the division bench headed by Justice Sen will no longer hear recruitment-related cases and the same will now be heard by the division bench headed by Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty. The division bench headed by Justice Sen will now hear cases which were so far being heard by Justice Chakraborty.