Lawlessness became the order of the day recently in the Calcutta High Court, as a lawyer indulged in a heated exchange with Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay during the hearing of a case related to the West Bengal teacher recruitment scam, telling him not to “turn the courtroom into a bazaar”.
The incident took place on Thursday, after the Single-Judge Bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay assembled at 3:00 pm to hear the West Bengal teacher recruitment scam case.
The Judge permitted the reporters present in the courtroom to record the proceedings on their mobile phones, a first in the Calcutta High Court.
The Judge said that he was allowing the journalists to use their mobile phones and record the court proceedings for the case, in which daughter of AITC Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal’s daughter Sukanya had to appear, along with five others.
Justice Gangopadhyay directed the mediapersons present not to live-stream the proceedings on social media, but permitted them to “keep a video record of the proceedings today”.
The move evoked strong reactions from the lawyers, who objected to the same. One of the advocates even told the High Court Judge that he should not “turn the courtroom into a bazaar”.
Another lawyer attempted to threaten the judge with an alleged rumour that reporters visited his chambers.
Justice Gangopadhyay replied that there was noting ‘objectionable’ in reporters coming to his chamber.
The High Court Judge also threatened the lawyer by saying that he will issue a notice of contempt and summon him to the court, since he had some evidence against the Advocate.
When the Advocate said he knew how to “deal with a judge,” Justice Gangopadhyay said he also knew how to deal with “a person like you”.
Allegations flew past the courtroom, as another Advocate accused Justice Gangopadhyay of not passing a ‘single judgement’ in the past six years. He further charged the Judge with not knowing the facts and even not reading properly.
The Judge then ordered the lawyer not to show his ‘red eyes’, while asserting that videography will take place in the case.
The petitioners had alleged that people close to Anubrata Mondal, including his daughter, had been given jobs as teachers. They also claimed that Sukanya never physically visited the Kalikapur Primary School in Birbhum.
As per reports, the attendance register was sent to Mandal’s house to mark the presence of his daughter.
On August 11, the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Anubrata Mondal, known to be a close aide of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in connection with the cattle smuggling case. The agency had earlier on August 5, sent a notice to Mondal for interrogation in connection with the case.