The West Bengal government has moved the Supreme Court against a single-judge order of the Calcutta High Court calling for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the alleged caste certificate scam in the State.The issue stems from a petition before the Calcutta High Court which alleged that the issuance of fake caste certificates is rampant in the State and that several persons have obtained such certificates to get admission to medical courses. On Wednesday morning, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay passed an order asking the West Bengal Police to hand over documents related to the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Minutes after said order was passed, West Bengal Advocate General Kishore Datta mentioned the matter before a division bench of of Justices Soumen Sen and Uday Kumar, which stayed the single-judge's order on the same day.Justice Gangopadhyay then took up the matter again,and ordered the AG to hand over the case papers to the CBI, insisting that he wasn't informed of the stay order passed by the division bench.The division bench subsequently set aside the single-judge order, after which Justice Gangopadhyay passed a rather controversial order ruling that the division bench order must be "ignored".Among other things, Justice Gangopadhyay stated in his order that Justice Soumen Sen, who was heading the division bench, was "acting for a political party in the State".
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The fiasco prompted the Supreme Court to step in and hold a special Saturday sitting to address the issue. A five-judge bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose took suo motu cognisance of the issue and stayed Justice Gangopadhyay's order directing a CBI probe.In its appeal before the apex court, the West Bengal government has contended that Justice Gangopadhyay's order was "aimed at bringing the administration of justice into disrepute and tends to shake the public confidence in the impartiality of judiciary."
"The observations, insinuations and aspersions lack courtesy and good faith, while Judicial restraint has been thrown to the winds," reads the appeal.The State has further contended that Justice Gangopadhyay "has arrived at his own conclusions on State Police’s incompetence, without there being any material on record, and solely based on their actions or inactions in a completely unrelated investigation, and on the other hand, in utter disregard to the Judicial Propriety and comity of courts."The case will be heard on Monday by the five-judge bench for further directions.
TAGS: West Bengal Government Supreme Court Calcutta High Court Caste Certificate Scam
