The Calcutta High Court Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay today directed the Secretary General of the Supreme Court to provide him with a transcription copy of his media interview that was placed before the Supreme Court by midnight.
Justice Gangopadhyay passed this order in a suo moto matter wherein he stated that he would be waiting in his chamber till 12:15 am to receive the copy of the official translation of his interview and the affidavit of the Registrar General of the High Court.
“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,” Justice Gangopadhyay stated.
Interestingly, the development comes just hours after a bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justice S Narasimha directed the Acting Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court to reassign the case involving the West Bengal Primary Teachers’ Recruitment Scam (currently being heard by Justice Gangopadhyay) to another judge.
The Calcutta High Court Judge had previously directed the CBI and the ED to question TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
In fact, the Top Court issued this order just four days after taking issue with Justice Gangopadhyay’s interview with ABP Ananda, in which he allegedly spoke against Banerjee. The bench had stated that “judges have no business granting interviews on pending matters,” and had sought clarification as to whether or not the alleged statements were made by the single judge.
Before issuing the order, the Apex Court considered a report and transcript prepared by the Translation Department of the Original Side of this Court, as well as an affidavit from the Registrar General. The aforementioned materials were filed with the SC in accordance with 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 order reads.
