SC transfers to itself pleas overcaste certificate 'scam' in stateafter spat between Calcutta HCbenches over CBI investigation

A five-judge bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud also advised senior lawyers appearing in the matter to desist from casting aspersions on either of the two benches of the high court that were involved in an ugly spat.

PTI, New Delhi, Jan 29, 2024 : The Supreme Court on Monday transferred to itself all petitions related to the alleged scam in issuing caste certificates to candidates aspiring for reserved category MBBS seats in West Bengal after two benches of the Calcutta High Court feuded over instituting a CBI probe into it.

    

A five-judge bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud also advised senior lawyers appearing in the matter to desist from casting aspersions on either of the two benches of the high court that were involved in an ugly spat.

    

Soon after the hearing commenced, the CJI said the judges of the bench had a conversation before arriving in the courtroom.

    

"We will transfer the proceedings in the writ petition and the letter patent appeal (LPA) to the Supreme Court. We will list it after a while and deal with it," said the bench, which also comprised justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose.

   

An appeal by a petitioner against a decision of a single judge to a different bench of the same court is known as Letter Patent Appeal (LPA).

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the state government, said 10 FIRs have been registered in the matter so far and several caste certificates cancelled.

"We will have an affidavit by the state government on the extent of the FIRs," the bench told him.

"The proceedings in writ petitions filed under Article 226 of the Constitution and the letter patent appeal (LPA) are transferred from the Calcutta High Court. All parties are directed to complete the pleadings in three weeks," the bench said in its order.

The plea will be listed after three weeks, the CJI said.

Meanwhile, Sibal said Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, the Calcutta HC judge whose order for a CBI probe into the alleged scam was overruled by a division bench, was continuing to take up such matters and "he will continue doing the same thing".

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, while acknowledging the fallout of the unsavoury incident, disapproved of the conduct of the division bench.

"There cannot be any doubt that incidents and the allegations in the present case and others have affected the administration of justice and brought the entire institution and its functioning under question," he said.

"At the same time, the hearing of the appeal (by the division bench) without a memorandum and without the Impugned Order, without any seeming urgency, cannot be considered to be correct ," the government law officer said.

CJI Chandrachud stepped in and urged the senior lawyers to desist from making any disparaging comments about either of the two benches.

"Casting aspersions on a single judge or division bench would not be proper. Anything we say can have an effect on impinging the dignity of the Calcutta High Court. We will handle it in some way," Justice Chandrachud told them.

The CJI said there is a chief justice in the high court who is allocating cases and the Supreme Court cannot arrogate to itself that power.

"The judge (Gangopadhyay) is taking part in the rally etc," Sibal said.

The solicitor general said there are other shocking facts also.

The top court bench had earlier sat on a holiday on January 27 to address the dispute where a defiant Justice Gangopadhyay overruled an order of a division bench that had quashed his direction for a CBI probe and asked the central agency to go ahead with the investigation.

In a bid to resolve the piquant situation, the apex court had on Saturday decided to "take charge" and stayed all proceedings in the tussle between the two benches of the Calcutta High Court over institution of a CBI investigation into the alleged irregularities.

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had accused brother judge Soumen Sen of the division bench of pandering to the interests of West Bengal's ruling party by overruling his order for a CBI probe.

The top court had taken cognisance of the unpleasant situation on Friday, constituted a five-judge bench, and decided to hold a special sitting on January 27 to resolve the impasse that understandably caused it great discomfiture.

The Supreme Court had stayed all proceedings before the Calcutta High Court and execution of the orders issued by the two benches.

"We will stay further proceedings. We are issuing notice to the State of West Bengal and the original petitioner before the HC. We will list the proceedings on Monday again. We will stay all further proceedings in the writ petition and the Letters Patent Appeal and the implementation of the single bench order referring the investigation to CBI," the bench had ordered.

It had also allowed the West Bengal government to separately file a Special Leave Petition (SLP) against Justice Gangopadhyay's order for a CBI probe.

Justice Gangopadhyay had overruled the decision of a division bench of Justices Soumen Sen and Uday Kumar Ganguly which had quashed his order of registering an FIR in the case.

Justice Gangopadhyay had on Thursday held that the order passed by the division bench of Justices Sen and Ganguly was wholly illegal and needed to be ignored. He asked the CBI to go ahead with the probe.

Justice Gangopadhyay had on Wednesday directed the CBI to launch an investigation, saying he had no faith in the state police. He had passed the order on a plea by MBBS aspirant Itisha Soren alleging irregularities in the admission process for candidates belonging to the reserved categories.

The West Bengal government had rushed to the division bench on Thursday and it imposed an interim stay on the order passed by Justice Gangopadhyay.

A combative Justice Gangopadhyay took up the matter the same day and asked the Advocate General how a stay order could have been passed without a memo of appeal and the impugned order in place.

"I have no other option but to ignore the order of the said Division Bench as the order has been passed in continuation of the illegal appeal void ab initio. I have ignored the said illegal order passed by the said Division Bench for the reasons as has been stated above including the ground of 'interested person' Hon'ble Justice Soumen Sen...

"Thus, Justice Sen is acting clearly for some political party in this State and, therefore, the orders passed in the matters involving State, are required to be relooked if the Hon'ble Supreme Court thinks so," Justice Gangopadhyay had said.