SC Orders Reassignment Of Case Against Abhishek Banerjee To Another Bench in Calcutta HC

The Supreme Court has asked the acting Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court to reassign the hearing of the case against Trinamool leader Abhishek Banerjee from the court of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay to another bench. 

The apex court passed this order Friday (28 April) after taking strong exception to Justice Bandopadhyay’s conduct. Justice Bandopadhyay had given an interview to a Bengali news channel and passed remarks against Abhishek Banerjee. 

A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice D.Y.Chandrachud and comprising Justice P.S. Narasimha passed the order on a plea by Abhishek Banerjee (chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew). The bench had, on 24 April, commented that “judges have no business granting interviews to news channels on pending matters”. 

The SC bench had observed that if a judge does so on a case pending before him, he would be debarred from hearing the case. 

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who had earlier asked the CBI to probe the cash-for-jobs scam in the school education department, had asked the CBI on April 13 to probe Abhishek Banerjee’s alleged role in the scam. 

Justice Gangopadhyay passed this order on the basis of an allegation made by Abhishek Banerjee during a public speech he made on March 29 where he alleged that CBI and ED officers were putting pressure on people they had arrested for their alleged involvement in the scam to name him as a prime conspirator and beneficiary of the scam. 

Subsequently, another accused in the scam who was in CBI and then ED custody had made a similar allegation. Kuntal Ghosh, who the central probe agencies say is a prime accused in the scam, alleged that he was being forced by ED and CBI officers to name Abhishek Banerjee. 

Ghosh, who was a leader of the Trinamool youth wing, was close to Abhishek Banerjee. 

Abhishek Banerjee filed a petition before the Supreme Court pleading that the order passed by Justice Gangopadhyay ordering central agencies to initiate a probe against him and question him be quashed. 

Banerjee, in his plea before the apex court, said he was never named as a party to the scam and that Justice Gangopadhyay had expressed dislike for him (Abhishek Banerjee) in course of an interview given to a news channel last September. 

Banerjee, in his appeal, also pointed out that Justice Gangopadhyay had made remarks against Supreme Court judges who were hearing appeals against his order in the case. 

It was reported that Justice Gangopadhyay, while reacting to the stay ordered by the SC earlier on his order to central agencies to probe Abhishek Banerjee’s role in the scam, had remarked in an open court: “Supreme Court judges can do whatever they want? Is this a zamindari?”

The Supreme Court had, thus, taken exception to Justice Gangopadhyay’s conduct and ordered that the case against Abhishek Banerjee be reassigned to some other judge.