Supreme Court takes suo motu cognisance of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay vs Justice Soumen Sen issue in Calcutta High Court

The Supreme Court of India has taken suo motu cognisance of the events that transpired in the last two days before Calcutta High Court which was privy to a bizarre order passed by a single-judge to ignore a division bench stay order. .Single-judge Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay besides passing an order ignoring the division bench had also gone on a diatribe accusing Justice Soumen Sen who was heading the division bench, of "acting for a political party in the State"A five-judge bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose of the Supreme Court will hear the suo motu case on Saturday at 10:30 am. .The issue stemmed 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 (January 24) 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 the very same day, 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 (January 25) 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 recorded 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."The single-judge said that there was no hurry for the division bench to stay his order and that Justice Sen was an 'interested party'. "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’," said the order.Justice Gangopadhyay did not stop there but also went on a personal tirade against Justice Sen.He alleged in the order that Justice Sen had called another Calcutta High Court judge Justice Amrita Sinha to his chambers on the last day before the recent court vacation and told her that Trinamool Congress leader 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 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..These orders and observations have now prompted the apex court to take up the issue suo motu.