New Delhi: The Supreme Court eased out Calcutta High Court judge Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay from the West Bengal school jobs scam case over an interview he granted to a TV news channel on the raging controversy, prompting him to ask the top court’s secretary general to place before him the official translated copy of his interview.
A bench of Justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli hurriedly assembled after the normal court hours and stayed the controversial order passed by Gangopadhyay, hours after the SC asked the Acting Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to reassign the school jobs scam case to another judge.
The apex court had recently voiced displeasure over Justice Gangopadhyay’s interview to TV news channel ABP Ananda. Justice Bopanna said Justice Gangopadhyay’s order soon after the apex court’s direction to the Acting Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court was not proper.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta agreed with the view of the bench and said the judge should not have passed the order. “On hearing the Solicitor General, as has been rightly pointed out, the order of the present nature ought not have been passed in judicial proceedings. More so, keeping in view the judicial discipline. The present proceedings are closed and the order of the high court is stayed,” the bench said.
The bench then directed the secretary general of the apex court to immediately convey the order to the Calcutta High Court registrar general. “As the matter stands, no further proceedings needed in this case,” Justice Bopanna said. Hours before the SC bench met for an urgent hearing to stay his order, Justice Gangopadhyay wanted the official translation of his controversial interview, in which he was alleged to have spoken against TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee, to be brought before him.