Supreme Court stays Calcutta HC Judge's direction to SC's top official

In a rare sitting held at 8 pm on Friday, the Supreme Court stayed Calcutta High Court Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay's unusual order directing the secretary general of the apex court to produce before him the transcript of his interview given to a news channel by midnight.

Earlier in the day, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay directed the secretary general of the Supreme Court to produce the documents before him which led the apex court to ask Calcutta High Court acting Chief Justice to reassign the West Bengal school jobs "scam" case to another judge.

"For the sake of transparency, I direct the Secretary General of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India to produce before me the report and the official translation of the interview given by me in media and the affidavit of the Registrar General of this Court in original, forthwith by 12 midnight today," PTI quoted Justice Gangopadhyay as stating.

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay further said that he would wait till 12.15 am "to get the said two sets in original which were placed before the Hon'ble Judges of the Supreme Court today."

It came after the Supreme Court asked him to reassign the West Bengal school jobs "scam" case to another judge after examining a report on Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay's interview with a news channel about the matter. The apex court took note of the report of the Registrar General of the Calcutta High Court and said the case has to be reassigned to a bench headed by another judge.

Days ago, Chief Justice D Y Chandachud said that the judges have "no business granting interviews on matters which are pending" after taking strong note of the purported interview.

"The petitioner (TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee) has annexed a translated transcript of an interview of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay on a TV Channel ABP Ananda. The Registrar General of Calcutta High Court is directed to clarify from the judge as to whether he had been interviewed by... of the news channel. The Registrar General is directed to file his affidavit before this court on or before Thursday. We will list it on Friday," the bench said.

With inputs from PTI.