Kolkata: A Calcutta high court division bench on Monday recused from hearing a case related to alleged irregularities in the recruitment of Group D staff in West Bengal government schools. This came days after a single-judge bench of Justice Gangopadhyay recorded its displeasure against the bench comprising Justices Harish Tandon and Rabindranath.
Justice Gangopadhyay twice ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe into the alleged recruitment scam. The division bench quashed the first order and stayed the second.
Gangopadhyay last Thursday said SP Sinha, a former West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) advisor, was one of the “kingpins” of the alleged corruption.
He ordered the CBI’s regional director to interrogate Sinha by midnight. When Sinha’s counsel informed him on Friday that the division bench is likely to hear the case, Gangopadhyay said: “Unless my hands are tied, I will proceed.”
On Friday, another division bench of Justices Soumen Sen and Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee stayed the single bench’s order for a CBI probe until the bench of Justices Tandon and Samanta, which had been hearing the matter from the beginning, takes it up on Monday.
“We are not inclined to take up the matter on our personal ground,” the bench orally remarked on Monday.
{{/usCountry}}“We are not inclined to take up the matter on our personal ground,” the bench orally remarked on Monday.
{{/usCountry}}When Tandon and Rabindranath’s bench directed Sinha to file his affidavit of assets in a sealed cover, Gangopadhyay observed last week: “I do not know what this court will do with a sealed cover in this proceeding when the hand of this appeal court has been tied by the above observation. I have been prevented from taking any consequential step on going through the said affidavit of assets.”
In 2016, the state government recommended the appointment of around 13,000 non-teaching staff in state-aided schools. The WBSSC accordingly conducted examinations and interviews. A panel was set up. Allegations later surfaced that commission made around 500 irregular recruitments after the expiry of the panel.