New Delhi, Feb 9 – The Supreme Court on Friday said that the plea filed by Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee seeking a direction to transfer alleged multi-crore teachers’ recruitment scam case to a special bench of the Calcutta High Court be tagged with the pending suo-motu case being heard by a five-judge bench.
“We have suo moto taken charge. We are tagging your matter with five-judge bench matter,” said a bench headed by CJI D.Y. Chandrachud.
However, the bench, also comprising Justices Manoj Misra and S.C. Sharma, expressed disclination to entertain the prayer for taking action against Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the High Court for his continuous politically motivated interviews in connection to sub-judice matters.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Banerjee, stated that Justice Gangopadhyay, in an order passed in a fake caste certificate case, has accused another sitting judge for calling fellow judge, Justice Amrita Sinha to his chamber and giving her certain suggestions on the cases related to the school job scam being heard by her.
In his plea, Banerjee, the General Secretary of West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool, prayed for a direction that the remarks made by Justice Gangopadhyay within or outside the court premises against him should not influence the investigation carried out by the CBI and ED.
The plea also sought directions to restrain the Judges from making adverse comments about any sub judice case or the parties involved therein.
The Supreme Court had taken suo moto cognisance of the unprecedented differences arisen between a division bench and a single judge bench of the High Court over CBI probe into alleged irregularities pertaining to admissions in medical colleges in the state.
In an order passed on January 25, a single-judge bench of Justice Gangopadhyay “ignored” a stay order passed by the division bench and asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to “immediately” start investigation into alleged fake caste certificate scam. Justice Gangopadhyay even accused one of the two judges of the division bench of “acting clearly for some political party”.
Subsequently, a five-judge bench of the apex court has formally transferred to itself all the proceedings pending before the High Court related to fake caste certificates being used for admission in medical colleges and hospitals in West Bengal. The matter is likely to be heard in apex court on February 19.
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