SC transfers to itself pleas related to caste certificate scam in MBBS admissions in West Bengal

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday transferred to itself a matter related to the unprecedented development in the Calcutta High Court wherein a single judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay declared a division bench's order as illegal and accused another judge of acting to protect the interest of the political party in power in West Bengal.

A five-judge Constitution bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud directed the West Bengal government to file the status of the probe launched by the state police with regard to alleged fake SC/ST certificates used for admission to MBBS admission in the state.

"We will transfer the proceedings in writ petition and Letter Patent Appeal to this court," the bench, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose, said.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal for the West Bengal government contended the single judge continued to take up these matters and he would do so in future.

"Let us not cast aspersion...after all we are dealing with a High Court judge...anything we say here should not impinge upon dignity of the High Court," the bench observed.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for the Union government contended there are shocking facts in the matter which would be brought before this court.

Senior A M Singhvi for TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee contended the Supreme Court's caution while withdrawing a recruitment scam case from Justice Gangopadhyay's court earlier did not have the desired effect and he continued to make observations.

"Let's not arrogate to ourselves the power of the HC, Chief Justice is in charge," the bench said.

Senior advocate Maninder Singh for an ST/ST association contended out of 52 certificates, 14 were found as fake.

Sibal said so far 10 FIRs have been lodged by the state police in 14 cases.

The court asked all the parties to file their pleadings within three weeks.

"We want to know the status of probe conducted in FIRs," the bench told the state counsel.

Taking up the matter, registered as suo motu, the top court had on Saturday stayed the proceedings before the High Court.

The unusual development in Calcutta High Court took place on January 25, a day after the division bench had stayed Justice Gangopadhyay's direction for a CBI probe into irregularities into MBBS admissions in West Bengal.

On January 26, the Supreme Court had registered the suo motu case as 'In Re: Orders of Calcutta High Court Dated 24.01.2024 and 25.01.2024 and Ancillary Issues'.

In the order on January 25, Justice Gangopadhyay had termed the division bench order as illegal. The division bench was headed by Justice Soumen Sen and also comprised by Justice Uday Kumar.

The division bench had on January 24 stayed the direction for CBI probe into the matter and held the state government should be allowed to complete its own investigation into the matter.

Subsequently, on January 25, Justice Gangopadhyay said, "It is clear from the order of the division bench that when it was stayed there was neither any memo of appeal nor any impugned order before the court."

He accused Justice Sen of indulging in "misconduct" saying what he has done is "to advance the cause of his personal interest to save some political party in power in this State".