JUSTICE VERSUS JUSTICE

The Calcutta High Court was the site of recent judicial turbulence, forcing top judges of the Supreme Court to step in and restore some order.

- Arkamoy Datta Majumdar

The row broke out when Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay alleged that his brother judge, Justice Soumen Sen, was hand in glove with "some political party". On January 24, a single-judge bench of Justice Gangopadhyay had ordered a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities in the issuance of reserved category certificates and their use for admission in MBBS courses in medical colleges of West Bengal. A day later, the state government, through a verbal appeal, moved a division bench of Calcutta HC, comprising Justices Sen and Uday Kumar, and obtained an interim stay on Justice Gangopadhyay's order. With the division bench quashing an FIR registered by the CBI to probe the alleged admission scam, a riled Justice Gangopadhyay, who has earned a reputation for an avowed crusade against corruption, passed a counter order the same day, directing that the "CBI shall start investigation in this matter immediately". In the written order, he made the accusations against Justice Sen.