Last year, Justice Gangopadhyay had ordered a CBI probe into the school jobs case. Later, the ED was also involved in the matter as a parallel investigator. The follow-up developments of the order created a major upheaval in the political circles of West Bengal.
It started with the arrest of former West Bengal Education Minister and Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee and his close associate Arpita Mukherjee by the ED in July last year following recovery of huge cash and gold from the residences of Mukherjee.
The arrests of heavyweight ruling party leaders like Trinamool MLA and former President of West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) Manik Bhattacharya, MLA Jiban Krishna Saha, former West Bengal Board of Secondary Education President Kalyanmoy Ganguly and former Vice Chancellor of the University of North Bengal Subiresh Bhattacharya, among others, followed.
In the midst of all these controversies, Justice Gangopadhyay came under scathing attack from the Trinamool leadership who accused him of deliberately making observations and forcing his wish-list against the ruling party.
Following Justice Gangopadhyay’s interview with a television channel, two cases were even taken away from his bench after an order of the Supreme Court and were shifted to the bench of Justice Amrita Sinha. However, Justice Sinha too upheld the earlier orders by Justice Gangopadhyay in the matters.
Even in the recent revision in the Master of Rosters for the judges of Calcutta High Court, the subject of hearing under Justice Gangopadhyay’s jurisdiction remained unchanged and he continued to hear the education-related cases.
–IANS
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