Since April 2022, the Calcutta High Court has seen an unusual concentration of judicial recusals—instances in which a judge withdraws from hearing a case. The clustering is striking: nearly every event sits inside one of two politically charged litigation streams, the WBSSC recruitment scam and the R G Kar Medical College rape–and–murder matter.
This record catalogues eight recusal incidents and profiles the sixteen judges who recused or were named on the benches involved. Every claim is footnoted to the bibliography. The aim is documentary, not adversarial: recusals exist to protect the impartiality of the bench, and the public record of who stepped aside, when, and why is part of the institutional accounting any constitutional court eventually owes its public.
Each card states the bench, the date, the reason given on record, and the matter under hearing. Click a card to see the full account.
Three benches recused, in sequence, from appeals against Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay's CBI–probe order in the SSC Group–D scam. All cited “personal grounds.” The matter eventually went to a bench headed by Justice Subrata Talukdar.
Recused from two writs filed by BJP Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari against the State. The Supreme Court had earlier sent the cases back to him after the State complained of delay; Mantha returned them to the Chief Justice for reassignment.
Justice Gangopadhyay's single bench ordered the West Bengal Police to hand a fake–caste–certificate case to the CBI; the division bench stayed it the same evening. A 25 January order from Gangopadhyay accused Justice Sen of “acting for a political party in the State.” A 5–judge Supreme Court bench led by CJI D Y Chandrachud held a special Saturday sitting and transferred the case to itself.
Recused from Abhijit Gangopadhyay's petition to quash an FIR by West Bengal Police alleging assault on protesting teachers during his Tamluk campaign. Sengupta cited a close personal relationship with Gangopadhyay from their time at the Bar and on the Bench—they had been sworn in as Additional Judges on the same day in 2018.
Recused from a PIL against former Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal, accused of having revealed the deceased junior doctor's identity in the R G Kar rape–and–murder case. Referred the matter to another division bench.
The division bench, which had been hearing criminal matters under Chief Justice Sivagnanam's roster, recused after a roster change moved criminal matters out of their assignment. Petitions by the victim's family were referred back to the new Chief Justice.
The bench that had recently permitted the CBI to re–interrogate convicted accused Sanjoy Roy recused from the R G Kar conspiracy petitions, observing that “in the interest of justice, the case should be heard by a bench capable of devoting adequate time.”
In open court, Justice Gangopadhyay announced he had lost faith in the West Bengal School Service Commission and released a specific SSC matter back to the roster. Less a formal recusal than a public expression of judicial frustration during the broader recruitment–scam litigation.
Sixteen profiles — the judges who recused, the colleagues they named, and the benches they served on. Most biographical detail draws on official Calcutta High Court profiles, Department of Justice notifications, and reporting by LiveLaw, Bar & Bench, The Print, Scroll, The Statesman, and Deccan Herald.
The central node in the network. Author of the SSC–scam orders that produced the April 2022 cascade of recusals; one half of the January 2024 standoff that ended at the Supreme Court; petitioner in the May 2024 FIR–quash plea that produced Justice Sengupta's recusal. Hauled up by the Supreme Court for a televised interview to ABP Ananda about Abhishek Banerjee in 2023; the SC ruled judges have “no business granting interviews on matters which are pending.”
Head of the division bench (with Justice Uday Kumar) that stayed Justice Gangopadhyay's CBI–probe order in the caste–certificate matter on 24 January 2024. The next day Justice Gangopadhyay's order accused him of acting “for a political party in the State.” Justice Sen did not respond publicly; the Supreme Court transferred the case to itself rather than adjudicate the allegation.
Recused in May 2023 from two Suvendu Adhikari writs (workload); again on 12 May 2026 from R G Kar conspiracy petitions (workload). On 9 January 2023, TMC–affiliated lawyers blockaded his courtroom; posters defacing him were pasted near his Jodhpur Park residence. Initiated suo motu criminal contempt proceedings.
Recused on 5 April 2022 from the SSC Group–D appeals on “personal grounds”—the second bench in succession to do so. Authored landmark judgments on child–victim dignity (incorporated by the SC in Nipun Saxena) and on Anti–Human–Trafficking Units.
Sat on the first division bench that recused from the SSC Group–D appeals on 4 April 2022; recused again later that summer (with Justice Samanta) from the State's appeal on CRPF deployment at the WBSSC building. Both on “personal grounds.”
Bagchi's and Tandon's fellow recusant on the April 2022 SSC Group–D appeals. A Bengali–language literary author beyond the bench — poetry collections Neel Sagarer Dheu and Hridayer Duar Kholo; legal text Mohilader Ain o Aine Adhikar.
Recused on 14 May 2024 from Justice Gangopadhyay's FIR–quash plea, citing a close personal relationship with him from their time at the Bar and on the Bench. Among the cleanest applications of the bias–by–association limb in this record.
Recused (with Justice Chaitali Chatterjee) on 20 February 2025 from a PIL against former Kolkata CP Vineet Goyal in the R G Kar matter, citing “personal reasons.” As Chief Justice, he was the destination for several of the recusal–driven reassignments and for the SC–mandated reassignment of Justice Gangopadhyay's cases in January 2024.
Bench (with Justice Rashidi) recused from the R G Kar conspiracy petitions in November 2025 after a roster change moved criminal matters off their assignment. Procedural rather than conflict–driven, but reported and counted as a recusal.
Sat with Justice Basak on the bench that recused from R G Kar conspiracy petitions in November 2025. Limited open–source biography.
Sat with Justice Mantha on the bench that recused on 12 May 2026 from the R G Kar conspiracy petitions. Biographical detail not extensively in the public domain at time of writing.
Received Justice Gangopadhyay's FIR plea after Justice Sengupta's recusal in May 2024. Stayed police action against Gangopadhyay on 17 May 2024 by analogising the matter to the Supreme Court's order in Arvind Kejriwal v. Directorate of Enforcement.
Single bench hearing high–profile recruitment–scam matters from May 2023, including the order allowing the CBI and ED to question Abhishek Banerjee. Named in Justice Gangopadhyay's 25 January 2024 order as the judge whom Justice Soumen Sen had allegedly instructed not to pass adverse orders against Banerjee. She did not recuse; the Supreme Court declined to direct her recusal.
Sat with Justice Soumen Sen on the division bench that stayed Justice Gangopadhyay's CBI–probe order in the caste–certificate matter on 24 January 2024.
Sat with Chief Justice Sivagnanam on the division bench that recused from the Goyal PIL on 20 February 2025.
Headed the division bench that, after the April 2022 cascade of recusals, agreed to hear the SSC Group–D recruitment–scam appeals. The Statesman's headline at the time: “Finally, one division bench agrees to hear SSC scam case.”
Recusal events in red, surrounding milestones in grey.
Every incident clusters in either the WBSSC recruitment scam (Apr 2022, Mar 2024, May 2024 in their aftermath) or the R G Kar matter (Feb 2025, Nov 2025, May 2026). Both streams involve allegations of State complicity; both have produced petitions naming Trinamool Congress leaders.
“Personal grounds” (Tandon, Samanta, Bagchi, Sivagnanam) does the heavy lifting. “Personal relations” (Sengupta) is rarer. Justice Mantha is unusual in stating an operational reason — pendency of matters and inability to give detailed hearings — rather than the boilerplate.
April 2022 and the R G Kar conspiracy thread (2025–2026) both feature successive recusals within a single litigation chain. The Statesman's headline “Finally, one division bench agrees to hear SSC scam case” captured the resulting unease.
Four of the eight incidents involve Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay directly — as author of the order under review, as the subject of SC intervention, as petitioner, or as the judge releasing a matter. The other four cluster around two political nerves: the Adhikari litigation and the R G Kar matter.
Neither Justice Gangopadhyay nor Justice Sen recused in the January 2024 caste–certificate matter. The Supreme Court transferred the case to itself rather than adjudicate the bias allegations — a route that resolved the operational problem without ruling on character.
Several of the judges named here have since moved up: Bagchi to the Supreme Court (March 2025); Tandon to CJ Orissa (March 2025); Sen to CJ Meghalaya and then Kerala (Oct 2025, Jan 2026). Sivagnanam retired in September 2025. None of these elevations was publicly tied to the recusal incidents.
Primary citations used in the underlying research. Tier 1 — primary records; Tier 2 — outlets of record; Tier 3 — legal databases; Tier 4 — encyclopaedia.