Alapan Bandyopadhyay is bench hopping by filing review petition after retirement of CJ DN Patel: Central government to Delhi High Court

The Central government has opposed the review petition filed before the Delhi High Court by former West Bengal Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay challenging the decision of the chairperson of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) to transfer Bandyopadhyay's case from Kolkata bench of CAT to Delhi bench. .The Central government in its response has told the Delhi High Court that Bandyopadhyay is indulging in bench hopping by filing the review petition immediately after the retirement of former Chief Justice DN Patel.“It is humbly submitted that from the conduct of the Petitioner, it is palpably clear and apparent that it is indulging in Bench hopping in the garb of a review petition and the present review petition which has been filed immediately after the retirement of the Hon 'ble Chief Justice who has authored the judgment under review,” the government has said in its response..Bandyopadhyay’s plea challenging Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) Chairman's decision to transfer his case from Kolkata Bench to Delhi was dismissed by a bench of then Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh on March 7, 2022.A review was then filed by him in which one of the ground was the denial of passover despite repeated requests from the junior counsel appearing for Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi. Notice was issued on the review petition on April 22 by a bench of Justices Rajiv Shakdher and Jyoti Singh. The Court while issuing notice had noted that the request for passover was denied by the then Chief Justice in the matter As the Centre opposed the review, Justice Shakdher had remarked that if it was the stand of the government that it is fair for the court to not allow passover of matters, then the bench will record the same in its order and no passover will be granted on request of junior counsel appearing for the Centre also. .In its response, Centre has said that though the right to be heard by the court is a valid and valuable right, the right of being heard only through a senior counsel is not.It has said that there is neither a rule providing mandatory passover on the first call nor is it a “regular practise” of the Delhi High Court to grant such a passover.“It is submitted that right of being heard is a valid and valuable right. Right of being heard only by Senior Advocate is neither a vested right nor treated to be a right, violation of which, would entitle a litigant to seek review of the order,” read the response..It further said that if this ground is accepted to be a ground for review, all courts would be flooded with application for re-hearing only on the ground that the litigant wanted to be represented by a Senior Advocate.“It is humbly submitted that the present Review Petition is not maintainable as no lawful grounds exist for review of the said Judgment and the present Petition is nothing but an appeal in disguise to get the matter re-heard on merits and the same is impermissible in law,” the response stated.The Central government has also said that there is no error apparent on the face of the record and the case cannot be re-heard because the petition feels a Senior Counsel could have argued it more forcefully..Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi along with advocates Kunal Vajani, Debanjan Mandal, Kunal Mimani, Mahima Cholera, Kartikey Bhatt and Gokula Krishnan have been appearing for Bandyopadhyay. ASG Vikramjit Banerjee had appeared for the Central government. .[Breaking] Delhi High Court issues notice to Central Government in Alapan Bandyopadhyay's review petition