Judge in Calcutta HC row set to quit law, tipped to join BJP
Times of India | 4 March 2024
KOLKATA: Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, the Calcutta high court judge who Bengal's advocate general Kishore Datta infamously declared would "receive a BJP ticket to contest the Lok Sabha election" during a courtroom spat in Jan, has said he is "done" with the judiciary and will resign on Tuesday to enter politics. He was officially due to retire in August after four years as a permanent judge.
Justice Gangopadhyay made the announcement during an interview with a Bengali channel, saying many victims of corruption were no longer able to approach the courts, and so he wanted to fight corruption from "a larger field".
"I will reassign whatever cases I have on Monday. I will inform the chief justice verbally and send my resignation to the President in the first hour of Tuesday. I will respond to all your queries after that at the base of Masterda Surya Sen's statue (in front of HC)," he told reporters Sunday.
"I might join a party or not. I will think about it if any party, like BJP or Congress or Left, or any smaller party, offers me a ticket. The constant taunts, barbs and insults hurled by the governing dispensation in Bengal and its brokers wearing the black gown have forced me to take this decision."
Senior BJP functionaries told TOI that "conversations and negotiations were on". A source said Justice Gangopadhyay might join BJP by Thursday and get nominated for the Tamluk seat, "barring any last-minute change".
Many of Justice Gangopadhyay's orders during his current stint have gone against the Bengal govt.
In a recent case, the judge was in the crosshairs of a division bench after allowing a CBI probe into the alleged use of fake caste certificates for MBBS admission in state-run medical colleges. The judicial joust, also involving personal and political insinuations, prompted Supreme Court to take over the case and set up a five-member bench to look into the row.
Chief Justice T J Sivagnanam said he was "sorry and ashamed" at what happened, terming it "undesirable in a temple of law". Two weeks later, Justice Gangopadhyay apologised to advocate general Datta in his courtroom.
CPM party secretary Md Selim said the judge's role in "unearthing" the teacher recruitment scam was "fearless and more like an activist's". "I hope whatever he does will be in public interest. We are looking forward to the steps he is going to take," he said.
Bengal Congress president Adhir Chowdhury, too, described the judge as "a fighter against corruption" and said Congress would welcome him if he wanted to join the party.
Trinamool Congress said there was little doubt about where Justice Gangopadhyay was headed.