Teachers' recruitment scandal: HC stays single bench order that directs Bengal minister to appear before CBI

A single bench of the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed senior West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee to appear before the CBI in connection with a petition alleging irregularities in appointment of assistant teachers in state government-aided schools, but he got a temporary reprieve as a division bench stayed proceedings in the case for a day.

Chatterjee, who was the state education minister when the alleged appointments were made, was directed by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay to appear before the Central Bureau of Investigation at its office in Nizam Palace here by 5.30 pm on Tuesday.

Chatterjee is now the industry, commerce and parliamentary affairs minister of the Mamata Banerjee cabinet.

Taking up a verbal appeal by lawyers representing the state government, a division bench comprising Justice Subrata Talukdar and Justice Ananda Kumar Mukherjee stayed all proceedings before the single bench till Wednesday.

The matter will come up for hearing on Wednesday morning, the division bench said.

The stay order meant that Chatterjee would not have to appear before the central agency on April 12.

Justice Gangopadhyay, earlier in the day, directed Chatterjee to appear before the CBI by 5.30 pm on Tuesday for questioning in connection with a petition that alleged irregularities in appointment of assistant teachers in government-aided schools.

The order came in the petition by an aspirant for the post, Abdul Gani Ansari, his lawyer Firdous Shamim said.

''CBI will register a case and will start interrogating such persons including the then Hon'ble Education Minister Mr Partha Chatterjee who cannot be kept out of the dragnet of CBI,'' Justice Gangopadhyay said, directing the central agency to call Chatterjee in course of the day.

''I direct Mr Partha Chatterjee to present himself before the Head of the CBI in this state in Nizam Palace by 5-30 pm today, otherwise necessary orders would be passed by this court which may be very unpleasant,'' Justice Gangopadhyay directed.

He said this court believes that no officer of the education department could act without the direction of the then education minister, who was at the helm of it till 2021, in matters like this. Justice Gangopadhyay also said it cannot be the case that only officials under the then minister of education would face a CBI enquiry and the man at the helm of the department would not be interrogated by the agency to unearth the whole scam.

''If CBI thinks that said Mr Chatterjee is not co-operating, CBI is granted liberty to start interrogating him by taking him in custody,'' he directed. Taking up the appeal on a verbal plea in the absence of a written order of the single bench then, the division bench presided by Justice Talukdar said it is of the view that such order being passed when the division bench is in the midst of hearing of the issue of illegal appointments under the school service commission, ''all proceedings connected to the said issue are required to be stayed before the Hon'ble Single Bench till tomorrow, i.e. 13th April, 2022''.

''The CBI shall also act in terms of the order of stay above passed by this Court,'' the division bench directed. On earlier orders of Justice Gangopadhyay, former advisor to West Bengal School Service Commission S P Sinha is facing a CBI probe in connection with the alleged irregularities in appointments of teaching and non-teaching staff in government-aided schools in the state.

Justice Gangopadhyay had also directed four members of a five-man committee, constituted by the West Bengal School Education Department in November 2019 for monitoring pending recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in government-aided schools, to appear before the CBI in connection with alleged irregularities in the process.

The committee was headed by Sinha and the other four members were S Acharya, P K Bandopadhyay, A K Sarkar and T Panja.

Justice Gangopadhay had on April 5 directed the CBI to register a case in the matter so that they can take all steps required.