 "Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay says will ‘join BJP’: Can judges enter politics?")
Hours after resigning as a Calcutta High Court judge, Abhijit Gangopadhyay said on Tuesday (5 March) that he would join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) likely on 7 March. Praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “very hardworking man”, Justice Gangopadhyay said the saffron party will take a call on whether he will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections or not.
“I will join BJP…most probably on March 7. It is the only national party which is fighting against Trinamool Congress’ (TMC) corruption,” he said.
Who is Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay? Why did he leave judgeship to take a political plunge? Can judges become politicians? Let’s take a closer look.
Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay and his many controversies
Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay was born in West Bengal’s Kolkata in 1962. Belonging to a family of lawyers, he studied law at Kolkata’s Hazra Law College, as per an India Today report.
During his college years, he took a liking to Bengali theatre and participated in productions with the theatre group “Amitra Chanda” until 1986. He began his career as a West Bengal Civil Service officer in the Uttar Dinajpur district, the report added.
Soon, Justice Gangopadhyay was back to his native city where he started practicing law at the Calcutta High Court. He became an additional judge in the High Court in May 2018. A little over two years later, he was confirmed as a permanent judge, according to India Today.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsHis tenure at the Calcutta High Court was rife with controversies, including for ignoring directives of larger benches. He is possibly best known for passing several orders to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to probe cases pertaining to the alleged West Bengal teachers’ recruitment scam.
The former judge has often vowed to combat corruption during his courtroom proceedings and in media interviews, reported India Today. His frequent run-ins with the West Bengal government also kept him in the limelight.
VIDEO | Here’s what Calcutta High Court’s Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay said on quitting judiciary.
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) March 3, 2024
“I will resign from the post of the Justice of Calcutta High Court on March 5 (Tuesday). I will send my resignation letter to the President of India and a copy of the letter to… pic.twitter.com/dv3ws8JkVF
The 61-year-old also stirred controversies by making critical statements against the CBI. Rapping the central probe agency for delay in gathering evidence in the alleged school recruitment scam, the former judge said earlier, “Just because you are the premier investigating agency, does it mean you will take 20 years for an investigation?”
In 2022, the Calcutta High Court Bar Association passed a resolution to boycott Justice Gangopadhyay after he authorised the CBI to arrest the then West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee in the alleged teacher recruitment scam, defying the orders of a division bench of the High Court.
His interview with a Bangla news channel in September 2022 sparked a massive row, leading to a rebuke by the top court. Justice Gangopadhyay who was then hearing a bunch of pleas in the alleged school jobs scam questioned the finances of TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, reported Indian Express. He faced falk from the Supreme Court over the interview, with Chief Justice of India (CJI), DY Chandrachud, saying, “A judge has no business to give an interview about pending cases.”
Later, the apex court asked the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court to assign cases related to the alleged scam to another judge.
In January, Justice Gangopadhyay was embroiled in another row after he accused fellow High Court judge Soumen Sen of “acting for a political party in the state”. His remarks came after Sen, who was part of a Division Bench, stayed Justice Gangopadhyay’s order to the police to hand over documents to the CBI in a case about alleged “irregularities” in MBBS admissions in Bengal, reported Indian Express.
Why did Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay leave the judiciary?
Justice Gangopadhyay had declared his intent to resign as a Calcutta HC judge on Sunday. Speaking to the media, he had said, “For the past couple of years, I was dealing with some matters in which huge corruption had been unearthed. I feel like my duty as a judge is now over. This is a call of my conscience that now I should go to the people. In our country and West Bengal, there are a large number of people who cannot come to court. Only politicians can do something to help them. I want to work for those people now”, reported India Today.
Congress’ Adhir Chowdhury had said the party would welcome him if he wanted to join.
After tendering his resignation to President Droupadi Murmu, copies of which were sent to CJI Chandrachud and Calcutta HC Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam, Justice Gangopadhyay told reporters that the ruling TMC “inspired” him to join politics.
“I have been forced to take this step due to taunts by the ruling party. Their taunts and statements inspired me to take this step. The ruling party insulted me many times. Their spokespersons attacked me with unparliamentary words. I think they have a problem with their education,” he was quoted as saying by Indian Express.
VIDEO | Here's what Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay said after announcing his resignation to join politics.
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) March 5, 2024
"I felt that I had done enough work there (in judiciary), but some work is set to be done for people who cannot go to the court or do not have the resources to go to the… pic.twitter.com/yzgwogiNRM
Former judge Gangopadhyay reportedly said he got in touch with the BJP a week back and he “did not take much time to think” about entering politics. The saffron party is likely to field him from the Tamluk seat, a TMC bastion since 2009, in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, reported NDTV.
Can judges join politics?
Indian Constitution does not bar a person with political links or a former politician from becoming a judge, as per a Moneycontrol report.
For the high courts, Article 217 (2) of the Constitution says: “A person shall not be qualified for appointment as a Judge of a High Court unless he is a citizen of India and —
(a) has for at least 10 years held a judicial office in the territory of India; or
(b) has for at least 10 years been an advocate of a High Court or of two or more such courts in succession.”
However, selecting candidates for the role of judges in the Supreme Court and the High Courts is mainly done by the collegium, the report added.
Moreover, India’s history is replete with judges who entered the political arena and some who undertook the reverse journey.
VR Krishna Iyer, an esteemed Supreme Court Judge, was an active politician till 1965. He became a High Court judge in 1968 and was elevated to Supreme Court in five years – a highly rare feat as an HC judge has to put a minimum of 10-15 years before being sent to the apex court, reported Times of India (TOI).
MC Chagla, a noted judge of the Bombay High Court, went on to form his own party, the Muslim Nationalist Party. After he retired from the High Court in October 1958, the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appointed Chagla as the Ambassador to the United States and later as the High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. He also served as India’s education minister from 1963 to 1966 and the external affairs minister till September 1967.
Congress’ Baharul Islam resigned from the Rajya Sabha to become a judge of the Gauhati High Court. After he retired from the HC, he was recalled and appointed as judge of the Supreme Court. Islam left the apex court to fight elections and later returned to Rajya Sabha again.
Justices AM Thipsay, Vijay Bhauguna, M Rama Jois and Rajinder Sachar have also taken a political plunge after retiring as HC judges, reported TOI.
Appointing retired judges to gubernatorial office is also not a recent practice. Retired Supreme Court justices Fathima Beevi was picked as Tamil Nadu Governor in 1992 and Sathashivam as Kerala Governor in 2014.
Retired CJIs Ranganath Misra and Ranjan Gogoi were given Rajya Sabha seats. Ex-CJI Gogoi had political affiliation as his father was a former chief minister of Assam.
With inputs from agencies
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
