SC takes note of row between two benches of Calcutta HC, to hold special hearing

Row involves a single-judge bench of Abhijit Gangopadhyay and a division bench comprising Justice Uday Kumar and Justice Soumen Sen.  

Sreyashi Dey, The Print, 27 January, 2024, Kolkata: The Supreme Court will, in a special hearing Saturday, take up a tussle that has erupted between two benches of the Calcutta High Court over allegations of fake caste certificates being issued in West Bengal to secure MBBS seats.

The row involves a single-judge bench of Abhijit Gangopadhyay and a division bench comprising Justice Uday Kumar and Justice Soumen Sen. It took place after the latter issued a stay on an order by the former directing a CBI probe into the allegations.

The case is based on a writ petition filed before the Calcutta High Court in September last year by Ishita Soren, who claimed students who didn’t belong to the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category were availing of reservation under the same to gain admission in the state government’s medical colleges. 

While Justice Gangopadhyay ordered a CBI probe into the matter Wednesday, the division bench issued a stay later the same day, after the advocate general, representing the West Bengal government, mentioned the matter before the bench.

The back-and-forth continued Thursday, with Justice Gangopadhyay holding the order of the division bench “illegal”, and accusing Justice Sen of misconduct and acting “for some political party in the state. 

He also requested the Chief Justice of India to look into the matter. 

What Justice Gangopadhyay said

Justice Gangopadhyay sought to quote what he said were remarks made by Justice Sen to Justice Amrita Sinha, who is hearing some matters involving Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

“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,” he said in his order, a copy of which has been accessed by ThePrint.

“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 Soumen Sen called her in Justice Sen’s chamber on the last day before vacation and like a political leader he dictated Justice Sinha three things,” he added, before listing the “three things”.

“i) Mr Abhishek Banerjee has a political future; he should not be disturbed. ii) Live-streaming shall be stopped in Justice Amrita Sinha’s court. iii) The two writ petitions before Justice Amrita Sinha, where the name of Mr Abhishek Banerjee is involved, are to be dismissed.”

Justice Gangopadhyay said Justice Sinha had “intimated this to me over telephone in vacation”. 

“Subsequently, Justice Sinha reported it to the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of this High Court, and I was told that the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of this court has communicated this to the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India.” 

He said the stay issued by the division bench is “illegal”. 

“I do not know whether the sky is falling upon some persons by order of CBI enquiry. Therefore, the CBI FIR should remain intact because Justice Sen’s division bench order is wholly illegal and has to be ignored. CBI should start acting by investigating into this matter.”

Justice Gangopadhyay also said he did “not know how a judge, being Justice Soumen Sen, who is under an order of transfer for last more than two years, is acting here as a judge defying the Supreme Court collegium’s recommendation (dated 16 September 2021) from this court to Odisha High Court”. 

“Who are the persons behind him, who are saving him from such transfer whereby the order of the Supreme Court collegium can be ignored while the other Hon’ble judges have been transferred by the same recommendation?” he added. 

On Wednesday, the judge had also expressed his doubts about the the West Bengal Police probing the matter, referring to the fact that hadn’t been able to find TMC leader Shiekh Shahjahan, whose supporters are accused of attacking Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in Sandeshkhali, for weeks now.

What the division bench said

On Thursday, the division bench said, “Yesterday when we passed the order, we did not have the opportunity to go through the impugned order since the impugned was not uploaded in the server.” 

“When the impugned direction was passed considering the urgency of the matter and that only few hours were left for the State to hand over the investigation to CBI, we exercised our jurisdiction and kept this matter today to look afresh to the order which, in fact, has been produced today during hearing,” it added.

The bench said, “On the teeth of our order, the direction for handing over of the papers to the CBI could not have been passed. CBI is directed to forthwith return all the documents collected from the court by 29 January.”

CBI files case 

The CBI’s anti-corruption branch at Kolkata has filed a case in the matter and begun a probe on the order of the Calcutta High Court. 

It has booked unknown West Bengal government officials under IPC sections pertaining to criminal conspiracy (120B), knowingly signing fake certificates (197), using corrupt certified documents (198), forgery (467), committing forgery to cheat (468), dishonestly using forged documents (471), and cheating (420), besides under Prevention of Corruption Act. 

Justice Gangopadhyay, central agency probes, Bengal govt

Since November 2021, Justice Gangopadhyay has ordered 10 CBI probes against the West Bengal government, including multiple ED probes in allegations of irregularities in school recruitment. 

In April last year, Justice Gangopadhyay was censured by the Supreme Court for speaking to a TV news channel on the alleged school recruitment scam while hearing the matter. 

On a plea filed by Abhishek Banerjee, the Supreme Court ordered the matter to be reassigned to a new bench after Gangopadhyay’s interview. 

As part of its probe into alleged irregular appointments in West Bengal government-run schools, the ED has arrested TMC Minister Partha Chatterjee and officials of West Bengal education board. 

Last month, Justice Gangopadhyay ordered the court sheriff to arrest a lawyer for contempt of court, for laughing during a hearing on a widow’s pension petition. 

The court bar association lodged an official complaint with the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court against Gangopadhyay’s “high-handedness” and urged him to withdraw all judicial work from him unless he apologises for arresting the lawyer. ThePrint accessed a copy of the December 2023 letter.

In April 2022, pro-TMC lawyers boycotted Justice Gangopadhyay’s court for 20 days and obstructed others from entering the court after he claimed he would ask the Election Commission of India to withdraw the TMC’s party symbol while hearing the school recruitment case. 

(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)