New Delhi: Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the Calcutta high court – who had helmed key judgments hauling up the Trinamool Congress government in the state – has told a Bengali news channel that he is planning to resign from his post as judge and could join mainstream politics.
“I will soon resign from the judge’s post. I will do this on Tuesday. I will tell you more about this decision later. Today I am saying just this. I feel like the work I do in the courts…the time for it is up. I might need to step onto a wider world, one with the people. Only those who want to litigate come to the courts, outside are many unfortunate people,” Justice Gangopadhyay told ABP Ananda in Bengali in an interview.
He said he would like to thank the party in power for this decision. “Whenever they have not liked a judgment by me, they have mocked me and insulted me. Some in lawyer’s robes had also joined in,” he said.
“I feel like in my work of six years as a judge, my role is over. I have nothing new to do,” he added.
LiveLaw has reported that Justice Gangopadhyay was due to retire in August 2024.
Since 2022, Justice Gangopadhyay has posited himself as a unique crusader against corruption claims made against the Trinamool Congress, delivering crucial verdicts that have helped uncover scams like the one in the Bengal school recruitment process.
Popular as a ‘people’s judge’ by those who were illegally deprived of getting teaching jobs through the West Bengal School Service Commission, Justice Gangopadhyay was also rapped by the Supreme Court after he controversially gave an interview to a news channel.
“I just want to say it that judges have no business granting interviews on matters which are pending,” said Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud.
“I think that a group of thieves will move an application with the help of big lawyers and say that our livelihoods depend on thievery, so if you don’t let us steal, it will affect our right to life under Article 21,” he had told ABP Ananda earlier in an interview.
Earlier this year, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court stayed proceedings at the Calcutta high court in a case where a single-judge bench of the judge defied a stay order passed by a division bench for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into medical college admission irregularities in Bengal.