NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Saturday suspended all proceedings before the Calcutta High Court until further orders after a single judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay declared a division bench's order as illegal and accused another judge of misconduct by acting on behalf of ruling party in West Bengal.
Acting suo motu following the unsavoury development, a five-judge Constitution bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose posted the matter for hearing on Monday.
"We are issuing notice to WB, original petitioner...We will stay all proceedings on the writ petition and Letter Patent Appeal as well as on order of CBI probe," the bench said.
Attorney General R Venkatramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta questioned the validity of the procedure where the division bench in an objectionable manner passed stay on the single bench's order without a proper appeal memo.
"We don't want to make prima facie determination at this stage, sometimes in exceptional circumstances...it can be done," the bench said
Mehta said this can be done in case of hanging or demolition etc.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal for the West Bengal that the state would be filing an appeal against the orders passed by the single judge on January 24 and 25, 2024 in the matter.
Mehta also said they would be filing a note to assist the court on procedure of law.
After passing the order issuing notice and staying the proceedings, the bench said, "We have taken charge now".
The unprecedented development in the Calcutta High Court took place on January 25, as the division bench stayed Justice Gangopadhyay's direction for a CBI probe into irregularities into issuing fake caste certificates for admission into MBBS courses in West Bengal.
On January 26, the Supreme Court registered the suo motu case as 'In Re: Orders of Calcutta High Court Dated 24.01.2024 and 25.01.2024 and Ancillary Issues'.
In the order on January 25, Justice Gangopadhyay had termed the division bench order as illegal. The division bench was headed by Justice Soumen Sen and also comprised by Justice Uday Kumar.
The division bench had on January 24 stayed the direction for CBI probe into the matter and declared the state government should be allowed to complete its own investigation into the matter.
On January 25, in a damning order, Justice Gangopadhyay said, "It is clear from the order of the division bench that when it was stayed there was neither any memo of appeal nor any impugned order before the court."
The judge also accused Justice Sen of indulging in "misconduct" saying what he has done is "to advance the cause of his personal interest to save some political party in power in this State".
"No rule has been shown to me that an appeal can be preferred and the order can be passed thereon in this High Court without the impugned order and without the memorandum of appeal," the judge had said.
"I have no other option but to ignore the order of the said Division Bench as the order has been passed in continuation of the illegal appeal void ab initio," he added.
Justice Gangopadhyay requested Chief Justice of India to look into the matter also citing an instance when Justice Soumen Sen allegedly called another Justice Amrita Sinha in his chamber and asked her to stop live streaming of a case involving Abhishek Banerjee, TMC MP and nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
"I do not know how a judge, being Justice Soumen Sen, who is under an order of transfer for last more than two years, is acting here as a judge defying the Supreme Court Collegiums recommendation (dated 16th September, 2021) from this court to Odisha High Court. Who are the persons behind him, who are saving him from such transfer whereby the order of the Supreme Court Collegium can be ignored while the other Judges have been transferred by the same recommendation," he had said.
