New Delhi:
Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay – who made headlines in April last year, after an interview in which he discussed a bribery case he was hearing at the time – has stepped down as a judge of the Calcutta High Court. Mr Gangopadhyay said he had already conveyed his resignation to President Droupadi Murmu and planned to meet Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam later today for a “courtesy visit”.
“I am going to meet the Chief Justice. I am going to meet the Chief Justice for a courtesy visit. I have already sent my resignation to the President,” he told reporters outside the High Court premises.
Mr Gangopadhyay said he had planned to hold a press conference to announce his resignation, but “it skipped my mind that prohibitory orders (banning large gatherings) are in place”.
“So I will hold it at my home. Please come at 2 pm,” he said.
There has been speculation Mr Gangopadhyay will contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls from Bengal’s Tamluk constituency on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket. The Tamluk seat has been a bastion of the ruling Trinamool Congress in recent elections; the party has held it since the 2009 election.
The Tamluk seat was held by Suvendu Adhikari (between 2009 and 2016, when he quit), who was widely seen as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s right-hand man till his incendiary switch to the BJP.
However, in an exclusive interview with a local news channel, Mr Gangopadhyay also lavished praise on Ms Banerjee, calling her a “seasoned politician”, and expressing his “great respect” for her.
Mr Gangopadhyay, who announced his decision to quit on Sunday, had received an invitation to join politics from Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh, to which he replied, “He has said lot of things against me as a political spokesperson, but I like him as a person. He is a good human being”.
Apart from the interview about the bribery case he was hearing – in connection with which Supreme Court Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said “judges have no business granting interviews on pending matters” – Mr Gangopadhyay has frequently made headlines with rulings on various issues.
For example, earlier this year he accused Justice Soumen Sen – who led a bench that stayed an order for a CBI probe into college irregularities – of working for a political party.
The matter is pending in the top court.
READ | In Judge vs Judge, Supreme Court Stays Calcutta High Court Case
In December last year Mr Gangopadhyay’s order to arrest a lawyer in the courtroom on contempt charges sparked a huge rowwith the bar association adamant on boycotting all proceedings involving the judge. He was hearing a case related to the state’s Madrasah Service Commission.
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