‘Let us forget misgivings’: After meeting Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, Calcutta HC Bar Association lifts boycott

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay was facing a boycott after he ordered the arrest of a lawyer for alleged criminal contempt on Monday. He returned to the Calcutta High Court on Thursday after two days of absence

After a two-day absence, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay returned to the Calcutta High Court on Thursday and spoke to Bar Association members and advocates, following which they decided to withdraw their boycott against him.

“Forget if there are any misgivings. I am also like you. I was also a member of this Bar Association. Do not stay away from work with anger. During work, there may be some heated exchanges. Let us forget what happened and work together again. Let us start the new year with a fresh start,” Justice Gangopadhyay said in the meeting with advocates. He also met Bar Association secretary Bishwabrata Basu Mallick.

On Monday, Justice Gangopadhyay had ordered the arrest of lawyer Prasenjit Mukherjee for alleged criminal contempt when the latter cited a division bench judgment that had modified a single bench’s order.

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Later, the Bar Association wrote a letter to Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam, mentioning the “extreme insult meted out” to Mukherjee where Justice Gangopadhyay held him “guilty of criminal contempt and disrobed him in the open court, and sent him to a civil prison in the custody of the Sheriff from the courtroom through the corridor of the High Court”.

After the letter, the high court held a special late evening hearing at 8.30 pm on Monday where a division bench of Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya stayed the direction for the lawyer’s arrest. The high court also shifted all the cases scheduled in Justice Gangopadhyay’s court to the single bench of Justice Sougata Bhattacharya.

After this incident, Justice Gangopadhyay stayed away from Calcutta High Court for two days.

Atri Mitra

Atri Mitra is a Special Correspondent of The Indian Express with more than 20 years of experience in reporting from West Bengal, Bihar and the North-East. He has been covering administration and political news for more than ten years and has a keen interest in political development in West Bengal. Atri holds a Master degree in Economics from Rabindrabharati University and Bachelor's degree from Calcutta University. He is also an alumnus of St. Xavier's, Kolkata and Ramakrishna Mission Asrama, Narendrapur. He started his career with leading vernacular daily the Anandabazar Patrika, and worked there for more than fifteen years. He worked as Bihar correspondent for more than three years for Anandabazar Patrika. He covered the 2009 Lok Sabha election and 2010 assembly elections. He also worked with News18-Bangla and covered the Bihar Lok Sabha election in 2019. ... Read More

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