A day after the Calcutta High Court Bar Association announced its decision to boycott Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay after he directed the arrest of a lawyer for alleged criminal contempt, the judge was absent in court on Tuesday.
While the high court did not give any information on when Justice Gangopadhyay would join, it simultaneously shifted all the cases scheduled in his court to the Calcutta High Court single bench of Justice Sougata Bhattacharya.
On Monday, Justice Gangopadhyay had directed the arrest of lawyer Prasenjit Mukherjee for alleged criminal contempt when he cited a division-bench judgment that had modified the single bench’s order.
Later, the Bar Association wrote a letter to Calcutta High Court Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam mentioning the “extreme insult meted out” to Mukherjee where Justice Gangopadhyay held him “guilty of criminal contempt and disrobed him in the open court and sent him to civil prison in the custody of the Ld. Sheriff from the courtroom through the corridor of the High Court”.
“The reason apparently is according to His Lordship the demurrer of Sri Mukherjee while showing an order of the Hon’ble Division Bench, which modified His Lordship’s order as improper and contemptuous. Even without any order Mr Mukherjee, the Ld. Advocate was taken into custody from the courtroom without giving any opportunity of hearing,” the letter further stated. “Such conduct of the Hon’ble Justice Gangopadhyay did not go well with the General Members and the members unanimously felt violated and hence, decided to not to enter into the Court Room of Hon’ble Justice Gangopadhyay from tomorrow i.e. 19.12.2023 till such time His Lordship Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay apologizes to the aforesaid member as well as to the Bar,” it added.
The Bar Association also requested the Chief Justice “to withdraw all judicial work from the court of Hon’ble Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay as the members are apprehensive of similar treatment, which may also extend to any of them”.
After the letter, the Calcutta High Court held a special late evening hearing at 8.30 pm on Monday where a division bench of Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya stayed the direction for the lawyer’s arrest.
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