Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Abhishek Banerjee has moved the Supreme Court seeking directions that cases involving him before the Calcutta High Court should not be heard by benches which have Justice Amrita Sinha or Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay [Abhishek Banerjee vs Union of India and ors].A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud with Justices Manoj Misra and Satish Chandra Sharma today tagged Banerjee's petition with the suo motu case which the Supreme Court had initiated earlier against Justice Gangopadhyay's orders in the fake caste certificates scam.Justice Sinha is currently hearing cases concerning the cash for school jobs scam after it was shifted to her from Justice Gangopadhyay's roster.The CJI during today's brief hearing remarked that it would not be proper to issue notice in the matter."But how can we transfer a case from Justice Amrita Sinha to us like this? We will tag this petition with the cases that we have transferred from Justice Gangopadhyay bench to us. So we will tag and hear this. In other cases where you say probe against political motivated statements, how can we," the CJI asked.
Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Banerjee, today submitted,"Justice Gangopadhyay says that Justice Amrita Sinha was talked to by Justice Soumen Sen about my case. This needs to be looked at. Justice Gangopadhyay gave three interviews ... It is my case that the learned judge alleges was discussed with Justice Sinha by Justice Soumen Sen".The Supreme Court had in April last year taken strong exception to Justice Gangopadhyay giving an interview to a news channel.In that interview, Justice Gangopadhyay had made allegations against Banerjee even as a case concerning the politician was being heard by the judge.The Supreme Court had then observed that sitting judges had no business giving interviews to TV channels.Subsequently, the CJI ordered the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to assign the said matter to another bench.Within a few hours of the top court's order, Justice Gangopadhyay suo motu passed an order directing the Secretary General of the Supreme Court to produce before him the report and official translation of the interview he gave to the Bengali media.As a result of this suo motu order, the Supreme Court had to hold a special late evening sitting only to stay the same. A division bench of Justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli also observed that such order was 'against judicial discipline.'More recently, Justice Gangopadhyay had accused his fellow judge - Justice Soumen Sen - of 'clearly acting for some political party in West Bengal.' The single-judge had also urged the Supreme Court to look into the orders passed by Justice Sen in matters involving the State.This was in a case relating to caste certificate scam in West Bengal.Pertinently, Justice Sen was heading the division bench that stayed Justice Gangopadhyay's order calling for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the scam.However, despite such an order being passed, Justice Gangopadhyay again took up the matter for hearing and eventually passed an order questioning how the division bench headed by Justice Sen could stay his initial order for a CBI probe. In the said order, Justice Gangopadhyay asked the CBI to 'ignore' the division bench's order as it was passed in an 'illegally filed appeal.'The judge then went on to claim that Justice Sen had 'instructed' Justice Amrita Sinha to drop cases filed against Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Abhishek Banerjee since he has a 'good political future.'The Supreme Court was then forced to take suo motu notice of the events in Calcutta High Court and transfer all the proceedings in the fake certficate case to itself.
TAGS: Trinamool Congress Abhishek Banerjee Supreme Court Calcutta High Court judicial controversy bench allocation suo motu case Justice Amrita Sinha Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay
