Judges shouldn’t give interview to media on matters pending before them: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court came down on the interview given last year by the Calcutta High Court's Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, in which he had said that he wanted to take action against a TMC leader for making comments against the judiciary. 

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ON Monday, a division Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dr D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice P.S. Narasimha took strong exception to the Calcutta High Court's Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay giving an interview to Bengali news channel ABP Ananda on September 19 last year regarding a case he is hearing concerning All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) National General Secretary and Parliamentarian Abhishek Banerjee.

"A judge has no business giving interviews to the media on matters pending before them," the CJI remarked.

The Bench directed the registrar general of the Calcutta High Court to personally verify from Justice Gangopadhyay whether he had been interviewed by Suman De of ABP Ananda. It added that the registrar general would file an affidavit to this effect before the next date of hearing on April 28.

The Bench was hearing a special leave petition filed by Banerjee against the order passed by Justice Gangopadhyay on April 13 directing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) to investigate Banerjee in relation to the teacher recruitment scam at both the West Bengal Central School Service Commission and the West Bengal Board of Primary Education.

A translated transcript of the interview, conducted in Bengali, was provided to the Bench by Banerjee as an annexure to the petition.

Justice Gangopadhyay had also directed that no police station would lodge any first information report pertaining to any complaint made to it in respect of any officer of the CBI or the ED who are investigating the said scam.

Justice Gangopadhyay acted against Banerjee after the latter delivered a speech on March 29 wherein, he urged some persons to support him by saying that when those persons were in custody, the police or the interrogating agencies pressured them to implicate him. After the speech by Banerjee, TMC leader Kuntal Ghosh, who is an accused in the alleged scam, made a complaint to the CBI and the Hastings Police Station that the investigating agencies were trying to force him to name Banerjee. Justice Gangopadhyay found proximity between the speech delivered by Banerjee and the complaint made by Ghosh.

"This matching tune raises a serious doubt in my mind as to a tacit understanding between them as when this Kuntal was selling school teachers job both Kuntal and Abhishek were in the same political party," Justice Gangopadhyay had observed. He had thus directed that no effect shall be given to the complaint made by Ghosh.

On April 17, the Supreme Court stayed the action against Banerjee in pursuance of the directions issued by Justice Gangopadhyay. Today, the Bench led by CJI Dr. Chandrachud expressed its displeasure at Justice Gangopadhyay speaking to the media on a matter being heard by him.

CJI Dr Chandrachud made it clear that if Justice Gangopadhyay had in fact participated in the interview, he could not hear the scam case and a different Bench would have had to take up the matter.

"If he has done so, then he cannot continue hearing the matter. We will not touch the investigation but when a judge who gives an opinion on the petitioner on a TV debate, then he cannot hear it. We will request the Chief Justice of the High Court to assign the matter to a different judge," the CJI held.

The Bench will now hear the matter on Friday.

In his interview, Justice Gangopadhyay had said that he wanted to take action against Banerjee for making comments against the judiciary.

"[Banerjee] once commented on the judiciary. I was not in Kolkata then. I was in Ladakh. Sitting there, I thought I will issue a rule against him. I will summon him. I will take action after that. But back in Kolkata, I found that a petition was filed in the division Bench in this regard. The division Bench did not consider the issue. They thought he would get extra importance. But, I have a different opinion," Justice Gangopadhyay had said in the interview in September last year, according to the Indian Express.