Advertisement
Calcutta: On Sunday, Abhijit Gangopadhyay, Calcutta High Court judge, said he will resign from his post on March 5. Justice Gangopadhyay declined to comment on whether he intends to enter politics, stating that he would address all media inquiries after submitting his resignation.
“I will resign from the post of Justice of Calcutta High Court on Tuesday,” he told reporters outside his residence here on Sunday. In 2022, he directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe alleged irregularities in recruitment of teachers and non-teaching staff in government schools in West Bengal.
Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay said on Sunday, he will send his resignation letter to President Droupadi Murmu, the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court and Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud. The judge added,”These days I will not do any justice work, I will just remove all the cases listed with me.”
The judge said he would answer all questions regarding his resignation and what is next for him on Tuesday. Justice Gangopadhyay had issued several directives instructing the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to probe allegations of irregularities in the recruitment processes of teaching and non-teaching staff in state government-sponsored and aided schools.
Justice Gangopadhyay also dismissed speculations that he would be joining politics after resigning. There were speculations that he would contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls from Tamluk — a seat which BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari held from 2009 to 2016. Last year, Justice Gangopadhyay drew the Supreme Court’s ire after he gave an interview to a news channel about the pending case relating to the teachers’ recruitment scam.
CJI DY Chandrachud then ordered the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court to reassign the case to another judge. Earlier this year, in an unprecedented instance, Justice Gangopadhyay accused his colleague, Justice Soumen Sen — who presided over a division bench that stayed a single-judge order for a CBI probe into medical admission irregularities — of working for a political party. The matter is pending in the Supreme Court.
