Judges can’t give interviews on cases they are hearing: Supreme Court

“The petitioner has annexed a translated transcript of an interview of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay on a television news media channel ABP Ananda…on September 19, 2022.

We direct the Registrar General of Calcutta High Court to personally verify from Justice Gangopadhyay as to whether he had been interviewed by Mr Suman De of ABP Ananda. The Registrar General shall file his affidavit before this court on or before this Friday before the Registrar Judicial of this court,” a bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and P S Narasimha said in its order.

Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for ED, said even assuming the interview was given, it had nothing to do with the High Court order.

CJI Chandrachud responded: “Then I am very clear that he should not participate in these proceedings any further…I have no doubt in my mind… Judges have no business to be granting interviews to television or whatever channels on matters which are pending before them”.

To a submission that the petition was not pending before the judge at the time of the alleged interview, CJI said: “If he is speaking about the petitioner in these terms in an interview, clearly he is disabled from participating”.

ASG Raju said it was a huge scam.

The bench added that it is not touching on the investigation of the scam and not going into the merits of the matter at this stage.

“Rest assured, we will not pass any order which will preclude a proper investigation into a scam. The question is whether a judge who has given an interview and expressed himself about a political personality like this should be allowed to participate in the hearing…or should we ask the Chief Justice to assign the matter to somebody else,” said CJI Chandrachud.

“We are not going to stay in the way of a proper investigation into any scam”.

Appearing for the TMC leader, Senior Advocate A M Singhvi said there was no clarification or retraction coming forth on the said interview till date. “This is just not done if you are hearing a matter”, he submitted.

Incidentally, on September 20 last year, five months after he had ordered a CBI probe into the teacher recruitment scam, Justice Gangopadhyay had told ABP Ananda that TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee should be jailed for three months over his remarks that a section of the judiciary was hand-in-glove with the BJP.

“I am aware that after the interview there will be controversy, but whatever I am doing is as per The Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct, which states that judges have freedom of expression, but whatever they say has to be under the purview of law,” he had said.Gangopadhyay had said he is in favour of “strictest action” against anyone “who points a finger at the judiciary, else people will lose faith in the justice system”.

“He (Banerjee) once commented on the judiciary. I was not in Kolkata then. I was in Ladakh. Sitting there, I thought I will issue a ruling against him, I will summon him, I will take action. Once back in Kolkata, I found that a petition was filed in this regard, but a division bench did not consider it. They thought he would get extra attention. But I have a different opinion,” he had said.

On April 17, the apex court had stayed the Calcutta High Court’s April 13 order directing the CBI and the ED to interrogate Banerjee and Kuntal Ghosh, an accused in the case, and file a report.

Prior to this, the single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court of Justice Gangopadhyay had also directed the West Bengal police not to lodge any FIR against CBI and ED officers probing the alleged scam.

The High Court had also taken note of the March 29 public speech of Abhishek Banerjee, in which he had purportedly said that Ghosh, an accused in the case, was being pressured by Central probe agencies to name him in the case.

Subsequently, Ghosh, an accused in the school jobs scam case currently lodged in custody, had also alleged that he was being pressured by investigators to allege the complicity of Banerjee.