Kolkata: Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the Calcutta High Court on Friday observed that there had been a breakdown of the constitutional machinery in West Bengal. He wondered why the governor was not saying that there had been a collapse of the constitutional machinery. Trinamool Congress reacted to this sharply, asking why the judge was using the shield of his judicial chair to make his “political wish list”.
Justice Gangopadhyay made the observation in course of the hearing of a different case — a case related to the recruitment scam — after lawyer Sudipto Dasgupta apprised the court about the Sandeshkhali incident.The judge wondered how the investigation into a scam would continue if investigators were beaten up. He sought updates from the lawyer about the condition of the injured officers.
Justice Gangopadhyay wanted to know what the local police were doing during the incident. He asked the lawyer if police had reached the spot during the mayhem. The judge also wanted to know under which Lok Sabha constituency did the Sandeshkhali area come.
“We would like to appeal to the Calcutta High Court chief justice to allow Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay leave to address CPM’s Brigade rally on January 7,” TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said soon after the judge made this comment. “Due to such statements, the judiciary which we all respect, is sometimes questioned. Because such statements are not neutral... . Who is he to question? Is he hearing this case? And if he needs to lecture, he can do so standing on a tool outside the HC premises,” Ghosh said.
“He sits on the chair of a judge but speaks in the voice of BJP and CPM. He is a face of opposition (in Bengal). This is not a statement of Justice Gangopadhyay as a judge, but the voice of Justice Gangopadhyay as a comrade. Even now, several CPM sympathisers cannot digest the fact that they have been defeated and are no longer in office. And even if someone among them sits on a judge’s chair, their anger sometimes speaks out. Why use the chair of the judge as a shield? Why do politics with a mask on? Remove the mask and take us on in the political battlefield,” he said.
Later in the evening, while talking to the media at Kalyani in Nadia, Justice Gangopadhyay said there had been efforts to block the investigation. “The government went to the Supreme Court challenging orders of the Calcutta HC. Citizens have every right to move the SC. I want to know why the government moved the SC. How much public money the government had spent to do this,” he said. He wanted the media to find out who all had organized the attack.
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