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Former Calcutta Excessive Court docket decide Abhijit Gangopadhyay joins the BJP within the presence of Sukanta Majumdar and Suvendu Adhikari in Kolkata on March 7, 2024. (PTI)
Abhijit Gangopadhyay didn’t go for a cooling-off interval after quitting as a decide of the Calcutta Excessive Court docket and earlier than becoming a member of the BJP. However is his case worse than that of Congress chief Baharul Islam shuttling from the Rajya Sabha to the Gauhati Excessive Court docket, then to the Supreme Court docket and again to Rajya Sabha once more? And Islam just isn’t the one such instance
He was mobbed for selfies at a e-book truthful. Determined job seekers would flip up at his residence late at night time because the “final resort for justice”. Abhijit Gangopadhyay was akin to Anil Kapoor’s no-nonsense chief minister within the 2001 film Nayak, ruling robust on scams and sending high ministers to jail, exhibiting no indicators of slowing down. Solely, Gangopadhyay did it as a decide of the Calcutta Excessive Court docket whereas fishing for greater catch.
So why is it so stunning that the well-behaved however aggressive Bengali Bhadralok in his early sixties stop the courtroom and joined politics with the BJP 5 months earlier than his retirement? He has at all times maintained that “the job” just isn’t achieved but.
In spite of everything, this isn’t the primary time a decide has joined politics.
Baharul Islam was a member of the Congress get together who resigned from the Rajya Sabha to develop into a decide of the Gauhati Excessive Court docket. After he retired because the Chief Justice of the HC, he was made a decide of the Supreme Court docket. He later resigned from the Supreme Court docket to contest elections and have become a Rajya Sabha member once more. If that didn’t unsettle the conscience of the society, why make a problem out of Abhijit Gangopadhyay, well-known for his anti-corruption stance, becoming a member of the BJP after quitting authorized service?
In the event you assume Islam’s was a one-off incident, assume once more.
After his stint as a decide, MC Chagla, a decide of the Bombay Excessive Court docket, served as India’s schooling minister from 1963 to 1966 after which because the exterior affairs minister until September 1967.
Mohammad Hidayatullah was the Chief Justice of India from 1968 to 1970. He served because the Vice-President of India for a short whereas in 1969 when President Dr Zakir Hussain died. Technically talking, Hidayatullah was India’s Vice-President whereas he was India’s Chief Justice.
Although an impartial MLA, VR Krishna Iyer served as a minister in Kerala’s Communist authorities. However that didn’t cease him from turning into a Supreme Court docket decide. An individual with political affiliation serving as a decide ought to have been a much more severe subject than a decide resigning after which accruing political affiliation.
Congress nationwide spokesperson Dr Shama Mohamed took to X (previously Twitter) to recommend “quid professional quo” citing Gangopadhyay’s earlier rulings “towards the state authorities”, which is led by the Trinamool Congress. However what she appears to have forgotten is that Supreme Court docket decide BR Gavai admitted in open court docket that he comes from a political background. Through the listening to on Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from Parliament, Justice Gavai provided to recuse, citing his household’s connections with the Congress get together.
Sure, Abhijit Gangopadhyay didn’t go for a cooling-off interval which wouldn’t have given rise to such questions. He ought to have. However is it worse than Baharul Islam shuttling from the Rajya Sabha to the Excessive Court docket, then to the Supreme Court docket and again to Rajya Sabha once more?
In 2012, because the Chief of Opposition, BJP chief Arun Jaitley made a speech at BJP’s authorized cell that made heads flip. “There are two sorts of judges – those that know the regulation and those that know the Legislation Minister.” Not holding again, the in any other case diplomatic Jaitley added: “Pre-retirement judgments are influenced by post-retirement jobs.”
Nitin Gadkari had beforehand steered a two-year obligatory cooling-off interval, one thing that was mocked by the Congress on the time.
In the meantime, the collegium to nominate judges has appointed individuals with political backgrounds even within the current previous. Take retired CJI Ranjan Gogoi, as an example, whose father was a former chief minister of Assam. The Nationwide Judicial Appointments Fee was binned by the Supreme Court docket, however the collegium just isn’t excellent both.
Abhijit Gangopadhyay isn’t the primary decide to hitch politics and received’t be the final both.
