Justice Tirthankar Ghosh of the Calcutta High Court on Monday recused himself from hearing a plea filed by Trinamool Congress’ national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee against an earlier order allowing the central agencies to summon him in connection with the school recruitment case in West Bengal.
Recently, Banerjee had moved the Supreme Court against an order of the Calcutta High Court allowing the central agencies to summon him in connection with the school jobs case.
However, the bench of Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice P.S. Narasimha had refused to interfere in the matter and said that Banerjee could move the high court again with a petition under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
On July 20, Banerjee had approached the single-judge bench of Justice Ghosh in this matter. Justice Ghosh, while allowing an interim stay on any coercive action, including arrest, by the central agencies against Banerjee till Monday, had said that he would hear the matter again on that day.
However, on Monday, the counsel of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raised some legal points regarding the matter being heard by this bench. Thereafter, Justice Ghosh recused himself from hearing the matter.
However, the ED gave an assurance of not adopting any coercive action against Banerjee till it is decided by the high court Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, whose bench will hear the matter in the future.
Justice Ghosh also recused from hearing another plea filed by Banerjee seeking permission to travel to the US for ophthalmological treatment.
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