BREAKING| ‘Produce By Midnight Translation Copy Of My TV Interview Placed In Supreme Court’: Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay Directs SC Secretary General

In a significant development, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the Calcutta High Court today directed the Secretary General of the Supreme Court of India to provide to him by midnight, the transcription copy of the interview given by him in the media which was placed before the Supreme Court, which prompted the CJI led bench to direct the Acting Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court today to reassign the matter concerning the Primary Teachers' Recruitment Scam in the state (currently being dealt with by Justice Gangopadhyay) to another judgeJustice Gangopadhyay passed this order in a suo moto matter wherein he observed that he would be waiting in his chamber till 12:15 am to receive the copy of the official translation of the interview given by him and the affidavit of the Registrar General of the High Court in that regard,"For the sake of transparency, I direct the Secretary General of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India to produce before me the report and the official translation of the interview given by me in media and the affidavit of the Registrar General of this Court in original, forthwith by 12 midnight today. This is required for the sake of transparency. I will be waiting in my chamber till 12:15 in the midnight to get the two sets in original placed before the Hon’ble Judges of the Supreme Court today.Importantly, the order was passed by Justice Gangopadhyay hours after the Supreme Court today directed the Acting Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court to reassign the matter concerning the Primary Teachers' Recruitment Scam in West Bengal to another judge. Till now, the matter was being dealt by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the Calcutta High Court who had directed the CBI and the ED to question TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.In fact, the Supreme Court passed this order 4 days after it took exception to Justice Gangopadhyay's interview with ABP Ananda wherein he allegedly spoke against Banerjee. The court had remarked that "judges have no business granting interviews on matters which are pending," and had sought for clarification as to whether the purported statements were made by the single judge or not.Before passing the order, the Supreme Court persued a report and the transcript made by the Translation Department of the Original Side of this Court along with the affidavit of the Registrar General of the Court in that regard. The said materials were filed before the SC pursuant to its directions."Pursuant to the order of this court, the registry has placed the affidavit. We have considered the note by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay and have also perused the transcript of the interview. Having considered the transcript, we direct that the Hon'ble acting Chief Justice of High Court of Calcutta shall reassign the pending proceedings in the case to some other judge. The judge to whom it is reassigned shall be at liberty to take up any application in that regard. Anybody who wants to make an application, that judge will consider it," the CJI-led bench's order reads.In fact, in an oral remark, the CJI also observed thus:" Judges take on very arduous duty. The only reason we're asking for case to be reassigned is because of the transcript - no other reason. They can't say in public realm that the judge was biased...You're right, no judges should be browbeated. As a Chief Justice, if I come across that, we'll take it up on the administrative side."The bench also clarified that the transcript of the interview justified the Supreme Court's order.

BREAKING| ‘Produce By Midnight Translation Copy Of My TV Interview Placed In Supreme Court’: Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay Directs SC Secretary General

Sparsh Upadhyay

Tags