6. Why an HC judge joining BJP has triggered a row

| Mar 5, 2024, 23:46 IST

What

Hours after resigning as a Calcutta High Court judge on Tuesday, Abhijit Gangopadhyay announced that he is joining the BJP.
"I will be joining the BJP, possibly on March 7. I am joining the BJP as it is a national party, which is fighting against the corruption of the TMC in Bengal," he said.

Blame on TMC?

Gangopadhyay, whose rulings on various education-related matters stirred political debates, blamed Bengal’s ruling party TMC for his decision to quit judicial services and join politics.
"TMC leaders have been using derogatory language against me for quite some time. If they don't like a judgment, then they can't just verbally attack a judge. Such instigations only helped me to take the decision to join politics and fight the TMC," he said.

‘Told you so’ moment

The speculation was doing rounds for several weeks. In fact, on January 25, Bengal’s advocate general Kishore Dutta startled many by telling Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay that he would soon join the BJP and contest the Lok Sabha election.
Gangopadhyay’s tenure at the bench began in May 2018, and was due to retire in August.

Run-ins with TMC

As a Calcutta HC judge, several of Gangopadhyay’s rulings and observations triggered controversies for their alleged political overtones.
The most controversial was a matter related to Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee’s MP nephew Abhishek Banerjee. In an unusual move for a judge, Gangopadhyay gave an interview to a Bengali news channel, criticising him while he was hearing a case in which the TMC leader was accused.
The Supreme Court took cognisance and directed the Calcutta HC chief justice to reassign the matter to another judge.

Not the first

In 1967, then-CJI Koka Suba Rao resigned to contest the presidential election against the Congress’s Zakir Hussain. He lost.
In recent times, former CJI Ranjan Gogoi became a Rajya Sabha MP, while another ex-CJI P Sathasivam was appointed the Kerala governor after his retirement in 2014.

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