Judge vs Judge: SC transfers from Calcutta HC matter relating to fake certificate to itself

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday transferred matters relating to fake caste certificates in West Bengal from Calcutta High Court to itself. A five-judge bench, led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, also directed all parties concerned to complete pleadings meanwhile.

However, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Chandrachud said that he does not want to cast aspersions on either judges. The CJI further added that they will deal with the matter differently and anything they say here, should not impinge on the dignity of the High Court.

Besides CJI Chandrachud, other judges on the bench are justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose. The top court also remarked that the High Court’s Chief Justice has the power to assign cases and it is not taking away its power to assign cases.

The court’s remark came when it was informed by the lawyers that the judge continues to take such matters and raised the issue that he may continue doing so in the future too.

In a special sitting on Saturday, the Supreme Court stayed the proceedings before the Calcutta High Court in connection with the West Bengal fake certificate matter and issued notice to the state government and others.

A five-judge bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud heard the matter in a special sitting on Saturday and said, “We have taken charge now”. The top court has taken suo moto cognisance over the Calcutta High Court’s order controversy arose out of various contrary orders passed by the single-judge bench and division bench of the Calcutta High Court.

It stayed the proceedings before the Calcutta High Court in connection with the matter. The court also stayed single-judge bench Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay’s ordered directing a CBI probe into the West Bengal fake certificate matter.

The case title “In Re: Orders of Calcutta High Court dated 24.01.2024 AND 25.01.2024 and Ancillary Issues,” arose out of some orders passed by Calcutta High Court’s single judge bench and division bench disagreeing with each other. Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, in his order, has accused Justice Soumen Sen, who is heading the division bench, of acting for a political party in West Bengal.

The Supreme Court said on Saturday, “Pending further order, there shall be a stay of all proceedings before the High Court of Calcutta. “The implementation of the direction issued by the single judge on 24 January 2024 and 25 January 2024 shall in consequence remain stay,” the top court said.

The matter arises out of a petition in the High Court in which it was alleged that the government was rampantly issuing fake caste certificates to many people to ease their admission to medical courses.

Single judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had directed to ignore Calcutta High Court’s division bench order and asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to begin its probe into the fake caste certificate matter.

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay said that Justice Sen is acting clearly for some political party in the West Bengal state and, therefore, the orders passed by the bench led by Justice Sen are required to be relooked if the Supreme Court thinks so.

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay said that Justice Sen has done it to save some political party in power and his (Justice Sen) actions are clearly tantamount to misconduct.

The single judge bench of Justice Gangopadhyay on January 24 asked the West Bengal Police to hand over documents related to the matter to the CBI. After some time, the matter was mentioned before a division bench of Justice Sen and Uday Kumar, which stayed the single judge’s order.

The single-judge bench of Justice Gangopadhyay again took up the matter and asked the West Bengal police to give papers to CBI. The division bench on Thursday did not agree with the single-judge bench decision.

The single judge again heard the matter on January 25 and passed a certain remark against Justice Sen. (ANI)