Supreme Court stays Justice Gangopadhyay's order on records of his TV interview [Read Order]

NEW DELHI: In a special sitting on late Friday evening, the Supreme Court stayed the Calcutta High Court judge Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay's order directing the the top court's Secretary General to furnish records submitted on behalf of the High Court with regard to his interview, saying such an order ought not to have been passed.

A bench of Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli noted a submission by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who said in the matter of present nature, an order of this nature ought not to have been passed in a judicial proceeding, more so keeping in view the judicial discipline expected to be maintained.

"We hereby stay the order dated 28 April 2023 passed in suo moto proceedings by the Single Judge of the High Court of Calcutta," the bench said.

The bench directed the Secretary General of this court to communicate a copy of this order to the Registrar General of the High Court of Calcutta forthwith, who shall in turn place the same before the Single Judge, who has passed the said order dated 28 April.

Earlier on Friday, a separate bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha had withdrawn a recruitment scam case in West Bengal's government schools from Justice Gangopadhyay.

Acting on a plea by TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, the top court had passed this order after going a report from the Calcutta HC's registrar general, which authenticated the interview, given by the judge to ABP Ananda.

The court had then objected to the interview in view of pendency of the matter before the judge.

Within hours of the top court's order, Justice Gangopadhyay himself registered a case as "In Re: The Court on its own motion" and directed the Supreme Court's Secretary General to produce before him transcripts of the translation of his interview to a TV Channel furnished before the top court.

"I direct the Secretary General of the Supreme Court to produce before me the report and the official translation of the interview given by me in media and the affidavit of the Registrar General of this Court," the judge wrote in his two-page order.

He also said this was necessary for the sake of transparency.

After the evening order by the Supreme Court, Justice Gangopadhyay said, "I am not resigning. I am not one who runs away. I have worked with my style of functioning, who comes next will work with his style of functioning. Supreme Court jug jug jiyo".

"We all will have to abide by the Supreme Court's order. There is a discipline. The Supreme Court is this countrys highest court. We the High Court function abiding by the Supreme Court," he told reporters.

[Read Order]