Over the past few months, politics in West Bengal has been rocked by a recruitment scam in which a high-profile politician and several officials have been arrested. However, it is a Calcutta High Court Judge who has emerged at the centre of prevailing political storm. In the past one year, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay gave at least ten orders directing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate irregularities in the recruitment carried out by West Bengal School Service Commission.
Till September 20, Justice Gangopadhyay’s court-room observations and orders created ripples in the legal and political circles of the State. On September 20, he gave an interview to a Bengali television news channel ABP Ananda, leading to an uproar. While the legal experts are divided as to whether a sitting High Court Judge handling high profile cases can give interviews to news channels, the Judge’s statements created further buzz in political circles.
In the interview he said that Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee should be jailed for three months for alleging that a section of the judiciary was hand in glove with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “I am aware that after the interview there will be controversy but whatever I am doing is as per The Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct, which states that Judges have freedom of expression but whatever they say has to be under the purview of law,” Justice Gangopadhyay said. He also claimed that he was “fearless” and even if the Supreme Court criticises him and he is removed from judiciary, he will stand by what he has done because “corruption has destroyed India”.
