Kolkata: The unprecedented attack by Trinamool Congress spokesman Kunal Ghosh targeting Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the Calcutta High Court earlier this week, which was personal rather than being issue-based, has shocked the legal and civil society in West Bengal.
The question being asked is whether this will set a trend for personal attacks against sitting judges in the days to come.
Questions are also being raised on how justified is Kunal Ghosh in questioning the authority of Justice Gangopadhyay in giving directions to the central agencies in the process of monitoring the ongoing probe in the multi-crore scam in the recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in the state-run schools of West Bengal.
There is also the question of the possible legal backlash that Ghosh can face because of his personal attack against a sitting judge of the High Court, considering that this is not the first such instance on the part of Ghosh. Earlier too Justice Gangopadhyay as well as Justice Rajasekhar Mantha had faced such personal attacks by Ghosh.
Already retired judges like Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly of the Supreme Court and former Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Debasish Kar Gupta have aired their views to the media where they have clearly said that while there are legal provisions for reprimanding Ghosh for such personal attacks, Justice Gangopadhyay had acted well within his limits by giving directions to the central agencies in the course of their investigations.
The issue arose after Justice Gangopadhyay gave permission to the CBI and the ED to question Trinamool Congress’ national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee over the allegations levelled by expelled youth Trinamool leader Kunal Ghosh that the central agencies were putting pressure on him to name Banerjee in the teacher recruitment scam.
Within an hour Kunal Ghosh attended a press conference where he described Justice Gangopadhyay as “biased” and “targeting Abhishek Banerjee”.
According to Ghosh, Justice Gangopadhyay was acting with a “specific wish list” to “satisfy the entire opposition including BJP, CPI(M) and Congress”. Ghosh also said that Justice Gangopadhyay should quit his chair and directly join politics.
According to Calcutta High Court advocate and CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya such crazy rantings, which Ghosh is habituated to for a long time, should be ignored totally.
“Just as honourable representatives of the judicial system completely ignore such crazy deliriums, others including the media should also do the same. Anyone who is taking legal resources to establish their legitimate rights are facing unprecedented attacks from the ruling party in the state,” Bhattacharya said.
State BJP leader and former national secretary of the party Rahul Sinha said that the Trinamool Congress spokesman is going out of his mind in his attempt to please the topmost leadership of his party.
“That is why such scathing personal attacks against a section of the judiciary again and again. Unfortunately, he is not even censored by his party leadership even once for such actions. So, can we assume that Ghosh has got the consent of his leadership for making such attacks?” Sinha questioned.
According to Calcutta High Court counsel Kaushik Gupta, Ghosh’s contentions about Justice Gangopadhyay’s instructions to the central agencies are baseless.
“A judge is well within limits to monitor and observe the progress of investigation and make observations on that. Anyone has the right not to be happy with a particular observation or order of a particular bench. In that case the choice is there for the unhappy soul to approach a higher bench or even a higher court. But such personal attacks against a sitting judge are unwarranted and totally uncalled for. Giving a political twist to an observation or direction by a judge is also non desirable,” Gupta said.
Another Calcutta High Court counsel JP Khan explained that if any statement by anyone is tantamount to interference in the administration of justice and hurts the dignity of the judiciary, then the danger of erosion of the public confidence in the judicial system surfaces.
“In that case if the court thinks that the statement is a fit case for contempt of court, the person hurting the dignity of the judiciary can be tried under the Contempt of Courts Act 1971 and the punishment can be a fiscal penalty or imprisonment or both,” he said.
_IANS