Supreme Court Declines Abhishek Banerjee's Plea For Action Against HC Judge Over Interviews, But Agrees To Consider Request For Transfer Of Cases

The Supreme Court on Friday expressed disinclination to entertain Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee's request for 'necessary action' against Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, judge of the Calcutta High Court, for 'politically motivated' interviews. With respect to this prayer, the bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices Manoj Mishra and Satish Chandra Sharma stated that Banerjee's petition will be tagged with the suo motu case initiated by the Supreme Court in which a batch of pleas concerning the medical admissions scam were transferred from the Calcutta High Court to the top court. While the apex court refused to entertain Banerjee's prayer seeking action against Justice Gangopadhyay for his controversial remarks, it agreed to tag his request for a transfer of the proceedings before Justice Sinha with the five-judge suo motu action initiated in light of the row between Justice Gangopadhyay's bench and a division bench comprising Justice Soumen Sen. Background The controversy stems from recent judicial actions taken by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the Calcutta High Court. In response to Banerjee's concerns, a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud observed that judges had no business giving television interviews and instructed Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam of the Calcutta High Court to re-assign all pending proceedings in the primary teachers' recruitment scam before Justice Gangopadhyay to another bench.