The Supreme Court on Saturday stayed all proceedings pending before two benches in the Calcutta High Court after a judge accused a fellow judge of “acting clearly for some political party”, reported Bar and Bench.
On Wednesday, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the High Court ordered an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the alleged irregularities in MBBS admissions in state-run medical colleges and hospitals.
On the same day, the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal moved the division bench of Justices Soumen Sen and Uday Kumar, which stayed the single-judge bench’s order.
Despite this, Gangopadhyay on Thursday directed that the CBI investigation will continue. He also accused Sen of being an “interested party”.
Gangopadhyay said that Sen had called another High Court judge, Justice Amrita Sinha, to his chambers recently and told her that Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee has a political future that should not be disturbed through judicial orders, according to Bar and Bench.
Sen also allegedly said that live-streaming will be stopped in Sinha’s court and the two writ petitions involving Banerjee that are pending before her are to be dismissed.
Following this, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, took cognisance of the matter and held a special hearing on Saturday.
“We are not deciding anything right now,” the bench said. “We will reserve everything later. We do not want to make a prima facie determination at this stage. We will see when the matter comes up before us. Sometimes, there are exceptional circumstances.”
The court also issued notice to the West Bengal government and the Central Bureau of Investigation and stayed the direction issued by Gangopadhyay.
Last year, the Supreme Court had reprimanded Gangopadhyay for giving an interview to a television channel about a case pertaining to alleged irregularities in the recruitment of primary teachers in West Bengal.
The Supreme Court’s observation had come after Banerjee had moved the top court against a High Court order that had asked the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate to question him in connection with the case.
Banerjee had told the court that Gangopadhyay, who passed the order, had expressed his dislike for him in an interview with television channel ABP Ananda in September.
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