Calcutta High Court judge says he will quit judiciary to join politics

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the Calcutta High Court, who recently accused a fellow judge of acting in the interest of a political party in West Bengal, announced on Sunday that he will resign as a judge and join politics.

“I am not telling you today which party I will begin with,” Justice Gangopadhyay said in an interview with Bengali television news channel ABP Ananda. “I want to first finish the little work that is still left in court. Tomorrow, I will wrap that up.”

He said he will then inform the chief justice of India of his decision orally and will send in a formal resignation to the president on Tuesday.

Justice Gangopadhyay joined the Calcutta High Court as an additional judge in 2018 and was made a permanent judge in 2020.

In the past two years, he ordered investigations by central agencies into several cases of alleged irregularities. These cases were about alleged irregularities in recruitment by the state education department as well as by civic bodies and, more recently, alleged violation of norms in medical admissions.

Medical admissions case

On January 24, Justice Gangopadhyay ordered an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation into alleged irregularities in medical admissions in state-run colleges in West Bengal, even though the petitioner had not made such a demand.

Later that day, the...

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