New Delhi, April 25: Chief Justice of India Justice D. Y. Chandrachud on Monday said that the Judges have no business ro give interviews to media on pending cases.
The CJI’s remarks came when the Supreme Court sought clarification from Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyaya, sitting judge in the Calcutta High Court, on his interview to a news channel about a case being heard by him.
“Judges have no business granting interviews to news channels on matters pending. If this is true, then he cannot hear this case anymore. If he has done so, he cannot participate in the case anymore. We will not touch the investigation but when a judge gives opinion on the petitioner, then he cannot hear it. The Chief Justice of the High Court then has to constitute a new bench,” the CJI said.
The CJI added that although the court was not going to the merits of the case where the Calcutta High Court directed the CBI to probe the role of TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in the alleged recruitment scam ‘as of now’ it was, however, imperative to know if the said interview was given by the judge or not.
The CJI made the remarks while considering plea by Banerjee against Calcutta High Court order directing to take Kuntal Ghosh, a suspended TMC leader, into custody and asking the CBI and the ED to question Banerjee in Primary Teacher’s Recruitnent scam.
Not only Banerjee even the West Bengal government approached the Supreme Court against the Calcutta High Court order directing the CBI to probe into the alleged irregularities in the Municipal recruitment on ED’s plea.
The Supreme Court, last Monday, had stayed the Calcutta High Court’s order that directed the CBI and ED to question Banerjee in the teacher’s recruitment scam.
EOM
