Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of Calcutta High Court claims that Justice Soumen Sen told a judge to drop cases against Abhishek Banerjee

In an unprecedented judicial order, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday alleged that Justice Soumen Sen "instructed" Justice Amrita Sinha not to pass adverse orders against Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Abhishek Banerjee [Itisha Soren v. Union of India]..In his order passed late on Thursday night, Justice Gangopadhyay claimed that Justice Sinha had informed him on a phone call that Justice Sen had asked her to come to his chamber before the winter vacation."I was told some days back by Justice Amrita Sinha that Justice Soumen Sen called her in Justice Sen’s chamber on the last day before vacation and like a political leader he dictated Justice Sinha three things:- i) Mr. Avishek Banerjee has a political future, he should not be disturbed. ii) Live-streaming shall be stopped in Justice Amrita Sinha’s court. iii) The two writ petitions before Justice Amrita Sinha, where the name of Mr. Avishek Banerjee is involved, are to be dismissed."Further, the order records that Justice Sinha intimated this to the Chief Justice of the High Court, who in turn purportedly communicated it to the Chief Justice of India. .Justice Sinha has been hearing a bunch of petitions related to the 'School Jobs for Cash Scam' in which Banerjee is alleged to have played a crucial role. The judge had made several observations in open court while hearing that matter and had even passed an order asking the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to properly probe Banerjee's role in the scam..In a controversial order, Justice Gangopadhyay also accused Justice Sen of working for the ruling TMC. "Thus, Justice Sen is acting clearly for some political party in this State and therefore, the orders passed in the matters involving State, are required to be relooked if the Supreme Court thinks so," the order stated.He went on to point that Justice Sen had been recommended for a transfer to the Orissa High Court by the Supreme Court Collegium in 2021, despite which the judge continues at the Calcutta High Court."Who are the persons behind him, who are saving him from such transfer whereby the order of the Supreme Court Collegium can be ignored while the other Hon’ble Judges have been transferred by the same recommendation?".He thus concluded,"I want to request the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India to look into this matter also including the matter as recorded above, i.e., calling one Judge in his chamber and to dictate her something which is nothing but interference with the course of justice and also passing the order by the Division Bench without any memorandum of appeal and impugned order.".Over the last two days, Justice Gangopadhyay has been at loggerheads with a division bench headed by Justice Sen, which first stayed and then set aside his order directing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe an alleged fake caste certificate scam in the State..Division bench of Calcutta High Court asks Registrar General to explain why stay order was not communicated to single-judge.[Read order]