Supreme Court in late evening hearing stays Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay direction to apex court Secretary General

In a hearing held late in the evening on Friday, the Supreme Court stayed the order passed by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of Calcutta High Court directing the Supreme Court Secretary General to produce the report and official transcript of an interview Justice Gangopadhyay had given to a news channel..A bench of Justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli noted that the order by the High Court was improper and against judicial discipline.The Court directed its Secretary General that Justice Gangopadhyay be conveyed the top court's order. "It has been rightly pointed out by him that an order of the present nature ought not to have been passed in a judicial proceeding, more so keeping in view the judicial discipline expected to be maintained. In that light, we hereby stay the order dated 28 April 2023 passed in suo moto proceedings by the learned Single Judge of the High Court of Calcutta in WPA No 10634 of 2023. We direct the Secretary General of this Court to communicate a copy of this order to the Registrar General of the High Court of Calcutta forthwith, who shall in turn place the same before the learned Single Judge," the apex court said in its order.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta who appeared before the bench also agreed that such an order should not have been passed by the High Court judge. .The case arose out of an order passed earlier today by the top court directing that the school-for-jobs case before the Calcutta High Court should not be heard by Justice Gangopadhyay.A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha ordered that the proceedings against Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee in relation to the school-for-jobs case, being heard by Justice Gangopadhyay, be transferred to some other judge of the High Court.That order was passed in light of the fact that Justice Gangopadhyay had given an interview to news channel ABP Ananda in which he made some comments against Banerjee, even as he was hearing the case.However, hours later in suo motu proceedings, Justice Gangopadhyay called for the official transcript of the interview from the Supreme Court Registrar General to be placed before him, by 12:15 am.Justice Gangopadhyay further directed the Registrar General of the Calcutta High Court to communicate this order forthwith to the Secretary General of the Supreme Court so that "those two sets in original, which were before the Hon’ble Judges today, can be placed before me as this has become now records of the court as the adjudication thereof is over."In light of the same, the special bench of the Supreme Court sat late in the evening to stay the order of Justice Gangopadhyay. .Read more here..Live account of hearing below..[Read order]