SC judge opts out of DA contempt hearing

Justice Dipankar Datta decided not to be on the division bench that was tasked with hearing the appeal following media reports that the state government staff would get a favourable verdict because of his Bengali lineage

Justice Dipankar Datta: File Picture

TT Legal Correspondent   |   New Delhi   |    15.12.22  : Justice Dipankar Datta of the Supreme Court on Wednesday recused himself from hearing the Bengal government’s appeal that challenged contempt proceedings launched against the state by aggrieved employees over non-clearance of dearness allowance dues.

The newly appointed Supreme Court judge decided not to be on the division bench that was tasked with hearing the appeal following media reports that the state government staff would get a favourable verdict because of his Bengali lineage.

However, the official order on the judge’s recusal had not been uploaded on the Supreme Court’s website till late evening.

When the matter came up for hearing on Wednesday, Justice Datta informed Justice Hrishikesh Roy heading the bench that he wanted to recuse himself from the case.

Following this, Justice Roy informed Bengal’s standing counsel Astha Sharma and advocates Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya and Meenakshi Arora, who represented the state government employees, that Justice Datta was recusing himself from the case.

Justice Roy told the counsel that Justice Datta was embarrassed and anguished over various articles, news reports and social media posts suggesting the employees would get a favourable verdict as the judge hailed from Bengal.

Justice Datta also briefly informed the assembled counsels that he was recusing himself from the case on account of the unwarranted hype in the media over his Bengali descent.

Bhattacharya told Justice Datta that there was no need to be embarrassed and that he could continue to hear the matter since everyone was aware of the judge’s personal integrity.

Bhattacharya told Justice Datta that there was no need to be embarrassed and that he could continue to hear the matter since everyone was aware of the judge’s personal integrity.

The matter will now be taken up for hearing in the third week of January.