Justice Soumen Sen of Calcutta High Court acting for political party; Supreme Court must review his orders: Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay

The controversy between a single-judge and a division bench of the Calcutta High Court has taken an ugly turn, with Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay accusing Justice Soumen Sen, who is heading the division bench, of "acting for a political party in the State". [Itisha Soren v. Union of India]..In his order passed in the matter involving fake caste certificates, uploaded late on Thursday night, Justice Gangopadhyay has said,"Justice Sen is acting clearly for some political party in this State and, therefore, the orders passed in the matters involving State, are required to be relooked if the Hon’ble Supreme Court thinks so...What Justice Sen has done today is to advance the cause of his personal interest to save some political party in power in this State. Therefore, his actions clearly tantamount to misconduct.".The issue stems from a petition before the Calcutta High Court which alleged that the issuance of fake caste certificates is rampant in the State and that several persons have obtained such certificates to get admission to medical courses. On Wednesday morning, Justice Gangopadhyay passed an order asking the West Bengal Police to hand over documents related to the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).Minutes after said order was passed, the Advocate General Kishore Datta mentioned the matter before a division bench of of Justices Soumen Sen and Uday Kumar, which stayed the single-judge's order on the same day.Justice Gangopadhyay then took up the matter again, and ordered the AG to hand over the case papers to the CBI, insisting that he wasn't informed of the stay order passed by the division bench..The division bench then took up the matter again on Thursday morning and set aside the order passed by Justice Gangopadhyay.The matter did not end there.The single-judge took up the matter again on Thursday and asked the AG what rule allows a division bench to stay an order of a single-judge when there was no memo of appeal. The order records that the AG submitted that he was not liable to reply this question, the single-judge "being a Lower Court comparing to the Division Bench."He also said that there was no hurry for the division bench to stay his order, adding,"In the said order I have not found any recording of any urgency in the matter. What was so urgent? Who is acting as an interested person for one of the political parties in the State?".On these grounds, Justice Gangopadhyay called for the division bench order to be ignored and for CBI to begin the probe immediately."I have no other option but to ignore the order of the said Division Bench as the order has been passed in continuation of the illegal appeal void ab initio. I have ignored the said illegal order passed by the said Division Bench for the reasons as has been stated above including the ground of ‘interested person Hon’ble Justice Soumen Sen’," reads the order..A curious conversation between judges.In his order, Justice Gangopadhay also alleged that Justice Sen had called Justice Amrita Sinha to his chambers on the last day before the recent court vacation and told her that Abhishek Banerjee has a political future and that he shouldn't be disturbed. Justice Sinha is currently hearing matters related to Banerjee, who is the nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.Justice Sen purportedly told Justice Sinha to dismiss both matters in which Banerjee is involved."Justice Sinha intimated this to me over telephone in vacation. Subsequently, Justice Sinha reported it to the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of this High Court and I was told that the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of this court has communicated this to the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India," the order stated..And the controversy did not end there..Justice Gangopadhyay also questioned why Justice Sen has continued as judge of the Calcutta High Court when his transfer was recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium in 2021."I do not know how a Judge, being Justice Soumen Sen, who is under an order of transfer for last more than two years, is acting here as a Judge defying the Supreme Court Collegium’s recommendation (dated 16th September, 2021) from this court to Odisha High Court. Who are the persons behind him, who are saving him from such transfer whereby the order of the Supreme Court Collegium can be ignored while the other Hon’ble Judges have been transferred by the same recommendation?".In his order, Justice Gangopadhyay has requested Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud to look into this matter."I request the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India to look into this matter also including the matter as recorded above, i.e., calling one Judge in his chamber and to dictate her something which is nothing but interference with the course of justice and also passing the order bythe Division Bench without any memorandum of appeal and impugned order. I direct the Registrar General to send copy of this order to the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India forthwith and I also direct him/her to give a copy of this order to the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of this court," reads the order..[Read order]