Single judge vs division bench: SC stays all further proceedings before Cal HC; issues notice to Bengal & others
New Delhi, Jan 27: In a special sitting held on Saturday, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court suo moto stayed all the proceedings pending before the Calcutta High Court, including directions for CBI probe issued by a single-judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, in a case involving fake caste certificates in admission for medical colleges and hospitals in West Bengal.
“We are issuing notice to the State of West Bengal and the original petitioner before the High Court. We will list the proceedings on Monday again. In the meantime, we will stay all further proceedings before the High Court and stay the implementation of the directions of the single-judge directing a reference to the CBI at this stage,” said a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud.
The bench, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B.R. Gavai, Surya Kant, and Aniruddha Bose, said that the top court will decide on Monday as to what further steps are required to be taken up in the matter.
Before rising, the top court said that it “will take the charge now.”
The matter will be heard next on January 29.
On Friday, the apex court of the country took suo moto cognizance of the unprecedented differences arisen between a division bench and a single judge bench of the Calcutta High Court over CBI probe into alleged irregularities pertaining to admissions in medical colleges in the state.
In an order passed on Thursday, a single-judge bench of Justice Gangopadhyay "ignored" a decision passed by the division bench of the High Court and asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to "immediately" start investigation of the matter.
The order passed by the single-judge bench on Wednesday calling for a CBI probe in the matter was stayed by a division bench of Justices Soumen Sen and Uday Kumar.
Justice Gangopadhyay even accused one of the two judges of the division bench of "acting clearly for some political party".