Kolkata: On Monday morning, the cacophony at Calcutta Excessive Courtroom was louder than standard. From the policemen stationed on the gates to the attorneys bustling by way of the corridors and even the court docket clerks, everybody was discussing the identical factor — Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay’s sudden resignation simply 5 months shy of his scheduled retirement from the nation’s oldest excessive court docket.
A line of holiday makers stretched outdoors his chamber on the fifth flooring of the centenary constructing — fellow judges, attorneys, officers from the accounts division, and even residents from central places of work. Some arrived bearing books as presents, others sought a selfie, whereas attorneys reminisced about moments from his courtroom and prolonged their good needs.
Not too way back, Justice Gangopadhyay was referred to as “god” by job aspirants in West Bengal.
Chatting with the media Tuesday, Justice Gangopadhyay stated each side approached one another. “I additionally approached BJP, BJP additionally approached me,” he stated, including that for the previous seven days, he had not carried out any adjudication.
In the meantime, the BJP has introduced its first listing of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections. Out of 42 seats in West Bengal, BJP is but to declare names for 23 remaining seats.
Calcutta HC hasn’t witnessed this earlier than — a sitting choose quitting judiciary to affix politics. In response to the HC’s Bar Secretary B. Basu Mallick, this can have a deep impression on the honourable picture of Calcutta Excessive Courtroom that won’t be simply erased, if ever.
“Residents assume extremely of the judiciary however not politicians. However what justice Gangopadhyay has achieved will harm the picture of Calcutta Excessive Courtroom. Naturally, folks will query whether or not his orders in opposition to the ruling TMC had been politically motivated. Legally, he has not flouted any regulation, there aren’t any provisions laid out for cooling-off interval for any working towards choose after he demits workplace and earlier than he joins lively politics. However the folks’s notion of judiciary and politics being hand-in-glove now stands clear,” stated Mallick.
However Justice Gangopadhyay isn’t the primary choose to have taken early retirement to make a political debut. In 1967, former Chief Justice of India Koka Subba Rao resigned three months earlier than his retirement to struggle presidential polls as an Opposition candidate in opposition to Congress’s Zakir Hussain. In 1983, former SC choose Baharul Islam resigned six weeks earlier than his retirement to contest Lok Sabha polls as a Congress candidate from Assam’s Barpeta seat.
Welcoming the choice, advocate Priyanka Tibrewal stated, extra trustworthy folks like Justice Gangopadhyay ought to be a part of politics. Tibrewal was nominated by the BJP to struggle the Bhowanipore bypoll in 2021 in opposition to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Within the Bar elections held final month, the Trinamool Congress secured 10 of 15 seats, together with that of the president. The BJP secured the remaining 5, up from its three seats it secured beforehand.
Nonetheless, Mallick says that for attorneys to brazenly have sure political affiliations is okay as a result of a lawyer is preventing circumstances for a consumer, “however a choose is meant to listen to circumstances which might be assigned to him in an unbiased method as he’s underneath oath”.
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‘Political fights taking part in out in court docket’
In response to Mallick, it’s the TMC that has a hand within the politicisation of the judiciary.
“You see, when the advocate generals had been preventing circumstances for the federal government of West Bengal, the temporary was coming from the celebration and never the house division. Thus, you see, not one of the AGs accomplished their time period underneath the Trinamool rule. The BJP has taken this chance to problem the TMC, that’s why you see the rise in circumstances between the Opposition and the federal government. The political fights are taking part in out in open court docket. And now it has led to a choose becoming a member of politics,” defined Basu Malik.
A younger lawyer, who has simply launched his agency and had earlier labored within the workplace of the extra solicitor common, instructed ThePrint on situation of anonymity, “Questions are being raised on whether or not the latest orders handed by the choose turned BJP politician had been with out bias or not. The headlines that had been and are being written about Calcutta Excessive Courtroom will probably be everlasting marks on the picture of an impartial judiciary.”
The TMC, in the meantime, has been swift to grab this chance to lighten the load of rip-off allegations in opposition to the Bengal authorities, significantly for the reason that choose had put the celebration in a decent spot, ordering as many as 14 central company probes in opposition to it in previous years.
“He had develop into a black spot on the judicial system, the best way he took choices as per his political priorities. I had stated it earlier than that he destroyed the dignity of Calcutta HC,” remarked TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee at a information convention on Tuesday. Banerjee is a sitting Trinamool Congress MP, a senior advocate on the Calcutta Excessive Courtroom and has appeared for the State within the Supreme Courtroom as properly.
Chatting with the media Tuesday, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee stated, “Folks ought to fastidiously learn between the traces. He stated he was in contact with the BJP, and the BJP was in contact with him. Individuals are sensible to know what this implies.” The MP had beforehand moved the Supreme Courtroom over an interview given by Gangopadhyay to a information channel.
Whereas chatting with ThePrint, retired SC choose Ashok Ganguly stated that Justice Gangopadhyay’s resolution to affix politics was a private one and that he had not violated any regulation. Furthermore, he added that Gangopadhyay has additionally been on the centre of political debates in Bengal, so this received’t be new for him. “The orders handed by Justice Gangopadhyay had been based mostly on advantage. I don’t assume he handed these orders for political factors. His orders gave hope to the folks preventing for justice,” added Ganguly.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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