Supreme Court: In a bid to put rest to the controversy that arose from the case relating to issuance of fake caste certificates, the 5-Judge Bench comprising Dr. DY Chandrachud, CJI Sanjiv Khanna, B.R. Gavai, Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose, JJ has transferred the Writ Petitions from the Calcutta High Court to itself after the Single Judge Bench of the Calcutta High Court directed the handover of papers related to the case to the CBI, despite the stay order of a division bench.
Last week, the Supreme Court had taken suo motu cognizance in the matter and in a special hearing held on 27.01.2024, Saturday, had stayed the order in which the Single Judge Bench of the Calcutta High Court directed the handover of papers related to the case of alleged issuance of fake caste certificates to the CBI, despite the stay order of a division bench.
The controversy arose after, on January 24, 2024, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the Calcutta High Court directed the State Police to hand over the case papers to the CBI for further investigation, after expressing lack of faith in the state police.
However, a Division Bench later stayed this order, stating that unless there is a specific prayer in the writ petition for a CBI investigation or a case made out for it, the autonomy of the state to conduct fair and impartial investigations should not be lightly interfered with. Despite this, Justice Gangopadhyay proceeded to allow the handover of the case papers to the CBI on the same day.
Also read:
[In Re: Orders of Calcutta High Court dated 24.01.2024 and 25.01.2024 and ancillary issues, order dated 29.01.2024]
