This is an archive article published on December 21, 2023
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‘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.
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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.
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.
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