On Sunday (3rd March), Calcutta High Court Judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay announced that he would resign from his judicial post on 5th March. However, he didn’t elaborate on the reasons for his resignation from the Judicial post adding that he will give reasons for his decision later. But in an interview with ABP Ananda earlier today, he said that he plans to join politics, and may join a party other than TMC.
Speaking with media persons, he said, “I will resign from the post of the Justice of Calcutta High Court on March 5 (Tuesday). I will send my resignation letter to the President of India and a copy of the letter to the Chief Justice of India and Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court. I do not want to say anything further on this today.”
He dismissed speculations that he would be joining politics after resigning.
However, in the interview with Bengali news channel ABP Ananda, Justice Gangopadhyay congratulated the ruling party, Trinamool Congress (TMC) for forcing him to take this decision of resigning adding that he could make a foray into the larger arena, including joining politics.
Speaking with ABP Ananda, Justice Gangopadhyay emphasised that he would like to congratulate the ruling party TMC that whenever he went to do any justice, whenever they didn’t like it, TMC spokespersons made very insulting comments, sarcastic comments towards the judge, towards the court.
He added that he didn’t take them too seriously and took no action against them, although there was scope for action. He further stated that he didn’t mind their remarks because he knew what he was going to do, what he was doing, and whether it was legal or not.
Stressing that their wish should be fulfilled, Justice Gangopadhyay said, “I have been challenged to come and fight on the (political) field several times by the ruling party’s (TMC’s) leaders, so I thought why not.”
During the exclusive interview with ABP Ananda, Justice Gangopadhyay said that he would contest elections if he got a ticket, however, he did not mention which party he was interested in. However, he mentioned Congress, BJP, Left, and other smaller outfits as options among political parties.
However, speculations are rife that soon-going-to-be Retired Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay could join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Notably, the speculations gained strength as BJP senior leader and Leader of Opposition in West Bengal assembly, Suvendu Adhikari recently stated that there will be big joinings on 7th March.
Notably, there are 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, and in the first list of candidates announced yesterday, BJP announced candidates for 20 constituencies. Which means, candidates for the rest 22 seats in the state are yet to be decided, and there is the possibility of Gangopadhyay being fielded in the polls in case he joins BJP.
Meanwhile, the senior state leadership of both BJP and Congress stated that they would welcome Justice Gangopadhyay’s decision to join politics. Congress’ Adhir Rajan Chowdhary had once said that he would like Gangopadhyay to be the chief minister of West Bengal.
Who is Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay?
A High Court judge since May 2018, Justice Gangopadhyay had issued multiple directives to the central probing agencies – Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) asking them to investigate alleged irregularities in the recruitment of both teaching and non-teaching staff in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided schools.
Evidently, in 2022, Justice Gangopadhyay directed the CBI to probe an alleged recruitment scam.
Additionally, Justice Gangopadhyay had once accused Justice Soumen Sen of “acting for a political party in the State”. The development unfolded after Justice Sen, part of a Division Bench, stayed an order by Justice Gangopadhyay in which the latter had directed the West Bengal Police to hand over documents related to a case to the CBI.
Following Justice Sen’s stay, Justice Gangopadhyay then took up the matter again. Subsequently, he ordered the Advocate General to hand over the case papers to the CBI and insisted that he wasn’t informed of the stay order passed by the division bench.
Further in his order, Justice Gangopadhay had also accused Justice Sen of pressuring another Justice not to take a tough stance against TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee. According to the allegation, Justice Amrita Sinha was presiding over cases involving TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee. Justice Sen then summoned Justice Sinha to his chambers and advised her not to disturb Abhishek Banerjee, citing his political future.