Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay after being relieved of two of the many cases he is hearing, expressed apprehension that other pending cases relating to teachers’ recruitment scam at his court would likely meet the same fate.
He feels the cases would be taken off him on the ground (for appearing in a TV interview). The deserving job aspirants staging sit-in for days now, the struggle could get longer as the judge, who the court would now reassign, would work according to their own style of functioning.
Justice Gangopadhyay, who tried to show a brave face after an axe fell on him in the form of shifting of two cases from his court by the top court by reassuring the media that he was here to stay, would not back down and not quit his post. He had said that the SC reassigned the cases to another judge, to which he’d nothing to do and would have to abide by the decision taken by the top court because discipline has to be maintained.
“I worked according to my style and tried to settle things in six months time but now those could be as staggered as 60 years because everyone has his or her own style of functioning. So, my advice to those aspirants who are still on the streets staging dharna is that their struggle is likely to get longer,” said Justice Gangopadhyay.
The Supreme Court, in a late evening hearing on Friday, stayed the order passed by Calcutta High Court’s Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, directing the apex court’s Secretary General to produce the report and official transcript of an interview he had given to a news channel.
A Bench of Justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli observed that the order of present nature ought not to have been passed in judicial proceedings, keeping in view the judicial discipline and stayed the order passed by the high court judge in the suo motu proceeding.
The Bench said the order was improper and against judicial discipline and directed the Secretary General to convey its order to Justice Gangopadhyay