Supreme Court Takes Over West Bengal Calcutta HC Judge Vs Judge Matter | Know What Is It About

The Supreme Court on Monday took over from Calcutta High Court the pleas related to alleged irregularities in the issuance of caste certificates in West Bengal, a matter that has led to a tussle between two benches of the HC.

The tussle is over the institution of a CBI investigation into alleged irregularities in the issuance of caste certificates to candidates aspiring for reserved category seats.

A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court chaired by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud sat on a holiday on Friday, January 26, to address the dispute where a defiant judge overruled an order of a division bench that had quashed his direction for a CBI probe and asked the central agency to go ahead with the investigation.

What Is The Judge VS Judge Calcutta HC Row About

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had accused brother judge Soumen Sen of the Calcutta High Court division bench of pandering to the interests of West Bengal's ruling party Trinamool Congress (TMC) to overrule his order for a CBI probe.

Justice Gangopadhyay had on Wednesday directed the CBI to launch an investigation, saying he had no faith in the Bengal Police. He had passed the order on a plea by MBBS aspirant Itisha Soren alleging irregularities in the admission process for candidates belonging to the reserved categories.

The single-judge bench of Justice Gangopadhyay on Thursday held that the order passed by the division bench of Justices Soumen Sen and Uday Kumar Ganguly was wholly illegal and needed to be ignored. He asked the CBI to go ahead with the probe.

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The West Bengal government rushed to the division bench on Thursday and it imposed an interim stay on the order passed by Justice Gangopadhyay. A defiant Justice Gangopadhyay took up the matter the same day and asked the Advocate General how a stay order could have been passed without a memo of appeal and the impugned order in place.

"I have no other option but to ignore the order of the said Division Bench as the order has been passed in continuation of the illegal appeal void ab initio. I have ignored the said illegal order passed by the said Division Bench for the reasons as has been stated above including the ground of 'interested person' Hon'ble Justice Soumen Sen...

"Thus, Justice Sen is acting clearly for some political party in this State and, therefore, the orders passed in the matters involving State, are required to be relooked if the Hon'ble Supreme Court thinks so," news agency PTI quoted Justice Gangopadhyay as saying.

Justice Gangopadhyay also alleged what Justice Sen has done is to advance the cause of his personal interest to save some political party in power in this state. Therefore, his actions clearly tantamount to misconduct, he said.

Supreme Court Steps In

The apex court, in probably an unprecedented step, took cognisance of the unpleasant situation on January 26 -- when it was a public holiday on the occasion of Republic day -- constituted a five-judge bench, and decided to hold a special sitting today to resolve the issue that understandably caused it great discomfiture.

The Supreme Court stayed all proceedings before the Calcutta High Court and execution of the orders issued by the two benches.

"We will stay further proceedings. We are issuing notice to the State of West Bengal and the original petitioner before the HC. We will list the proceeding on Monday again. We will stay all further proceedings in the writ petition and the Letters Patent Appeal and the implementation of the single bench order referring the investigation to CBI," the bench, also comprising justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose, said.

The top court also allowed the West Bengal government to file separately a Special Leave Petition (SLP) against Justice Gangopadhyay's order for a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities.

In the course of hearing on Saturday, Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the West Bengal government, said the state intended to file an appeal against Justice Gangopadhyay's order for a CBI probe.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the CBI, submitted the order of the division bench lacked jurisdiction as it stayed Justice Gangopadhyay's order without even an appeal memo having been filed.

"I am more concerned about passing of an order without an appeal memo or any impugned order in place. This court had under Article 141 prohibited the same. I am not here defending either a single judge or division bench order," Mehta said and sought permission for the CBI to file a note on the issue.

"We will take this up on Monday, We have taken charge now," the bench said.

(with PTI inputs)