‘No business giving interviews on pending cases’: Supreme Court to judges

Judges should not give interviews to news outlets on matters pending before them, the Supreme Court said on Monday, questioning the conduct of a Calcutta high court judge who gave a TV interview, speaking on politically sensitive cases in West Bengal being adjudicated by his bench.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud took umbrage at the video interview of justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who has given at least 10 orders directing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate irregularities in the recruitment by West Bengal School Service Commission.

“Judges have no business granting interviews on matters which are pending. And if they do so, they cannot hear the case…They have no business participating in the proceedings. We are absolutely clear on that,” said the bench, also comprising justice PS Narasimha, while seeking a report from the registrar general of the Calcutta high court on the issue by April 28.

The bench added that it may ask the chief justice of the high court to assign the matter to a new bench if the interview and the transcript are found to be true. “We will not touch the investigation or pass any order to preclude an agency from investigating the matter. But when a judge gives an opinion on the petitioner in a TV debate, he cannot hear that case,” it said. “The high court chief then has to constitute a new bench.”

In its order, the bench asked the registrar to verify from justice Gangopadhyay as to whether he gave an interview to Bengali television news channel ABP Ananda and further clarify his statements as recorded in the video.

“We want to know if the learned judge has taken part in the interview. This is something on a TV video and it cannot be possibly misinterpreted. We don’t get into something said or observed in the court but TV interviews,” the bench said, fixing Friday for further hearing.

In an interview to ABP Ananda aired last September, justice Gangopdhyay justified his orders on a CBI probe, saying there appeared “rampant corruption” in the teachers’ recruitment process.

The high court judge also said Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee could face a jail term of three months for alleging that a section of judiciary was hand in gloves with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He was “fearless” and even if the Supreme Court criticises him and he is removed from judiciary, he will stand by what he has done because “corruption has destroyed India”, the judge added, perhaps aware that his behaviour would be frowned upon by the top court.

Banerjee on Monday brought the TV interview and its transcript on record before the Supreme Court bench, citing an order of the high court judge asking CBI and the Enforcement Directorate to probe the TMC leader in connection with the recruitment scam case.

Senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Gopal Sankaranarayanan complained that a sitting judge cannot give an interview regarding a case pending before him and then go on to pass an order against a political person who he has also castigated in the interview. Singhvi called justice Gangopadhyay’s conduct “unprecedented” and asked for contempt action.

At first, the bench observed that it may not be proper for the apex court to take note of certain statements made by a judge during the proceedings before his court but after Singhvi drew the CJI’s attention to the TV interview and the transcript, the bench was inclined to pursue the matter.

“The question is whether a judge, who has made statements like these about a political personality, should be allowed to participate in the hearings? There has to be some process,” said the bench.

The court was hearing Banerjee’s petition challenging justice Gangopadhyay’s order asking CBI and ED to question him in connection with the bribe-for-job scam in the West Bengal school education department. Last week, the bench had stayed the high court order against the TMC MP till April 24. The interim relief will continue till the next date of hearing.