New Delhi: The Supreme Court has transferred to itself a Calcutta High Court case about caste certificates allegedly being misused after two judges had a difference of opinion over who should probe it.
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud with Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B.R. Gavai, Surya Kant, and Aniruddha Bose passed the order in a suo motu case, which was initiated after Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay last week defied a stay order passed by a bench headed by Justice Soumen Sen.
The top court judges on Monday did not comment on the apparent clash between Justices Gangopadhyay and Sen, observing any remark would demean the dignity of a high court.
The Chief Justice said: “Casting aspersions on a single judge or division bench would not be proper. Anything we say will have an effect on impinging the dignity of the high court. we will handle it in some way.”
The five-judge bench, however, said the case would hereafter be dealt by it.
It said: “We will transfer the proceedings in the writ petition and the letters patent appeal to the Supreme Court. We will list it after a while and deal with it… The plea under Article 226 and letters patent appeal to be transferred to this court. Let pleadings be completed meanwhile.”
How did it start?
The case was based on a writ petition filed before the Calcutta High Court last September by Ishita Soren, who was an aspirant to an MBBS course in Bengal colleges.
She claimed in her petition that students, who did not belong to the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category, were taking advantage of its reservation quota to get admission in the state government’s medical colleges.
Justice Gangopadhyay ordered a CBI probe into the matter on Wednesday, but the division bench of Justices Soumen Sen and Uday Kumar, issued a stay on his order the same day.
The stay came after the advocate general, representing the West Bengal government, mentioned the matter before the bench.
Justice Gangopadhyay heard the matter again on Thursday, and held the order of the division bench “illegal”. He accused Justice Sen of misconduct and said he was acting “ for some political party in the state”.
Justice Gangopadhyay also requested the CJI to look into the matter.
Supreme Court steps in
In a special sitting on Saturday, the five-judge Supreme Court bench took suo motu cognizance of these unusual developments and stayed all proceedings regarding the matter in the Calcutta High Court.
Restraining both benches from hearing the case, the top court refrained from making any comments on its merits and said the matter would be heard again on Monday.
It also issued a notice to the West Bengal government and the original petitioner in the case.
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