The Supreme Court’s order of Friday for transfer of proceedings pending before Calcutta High Court judge Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay against Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee, in connection with the multi-crore scam in the recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in state-run schools in West Bengal, to some other judge has evoked mixed response in the state.
The most significant observation was from the senior advocate of Calcutta High Court and the CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member, Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya.
“There is a confusion going on that all the cases relating to the multi-crore teachers’ recruitment scam have been transferred from Justice Gangopadhyay’s bench. But in my opinion there is no question of confusion. What I have understood is that only the case relating to Kuntal Ghosh’s allegation and letter accusing central agencies of putting pressure on him to name Abhishek Banerjee in the recruitment scam, has been transferred from Justice Gangopadhyay’s bench. But at the same time any detailed comment can be made only after the full order copy is available,” Bhattacharya told IANS.
Welcoming the apex court order, Trinamool Congress’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said he has full faith in the judicial system of the country. “However, I would not like to make any comment on any sub-judice matter,” he said.
BJP’ state president in Bengal, Sukanta Majumdar said that this verdict is extremely unfortunate. “But I feel that the battle against corruption started by Justice Gangopadhyay will not end here. Others will carry forward this battle,” he said.
Veteran Congress Lok Sabha member and the party’s state president in West Bengal Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that the apex court has not made any such observation that the probe on recruitment scam is illegal.
“On some procedural matters the apex court has observed that Justice Gangopadhyay would not have made certain comments in television channels. But this is simply a question of procedure. Justice Gangopadhyay has proved how powerful the chair of a judge is,” he said.
(The story has been published via a syndicated feed.)
