Cal HC upholds order for CBI probe into school appointments; minister appears before agency

The Bag committee found irregularities in appointments to Group-D and Group-C posts.It had stated that 381 Group-C and 609 Group-D appointments were made illegally and recommended criminal proceedings against four former top officials of state School Service Commission and the incumbent president of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, Kalyanmoy Ganguly.

A division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday upheld a single bench order for CBI inquiry into alleged illegal appointments made by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education on the recommendations of the School Service Commission (SSC).

The bench, chaired by Justice Subrata Talukdar, maintained that the single bench order require no intervention. Shortly after, Justice Gangopadhyay directed Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee to appear before the CBI in connection with the appointment scam.

Chatterjee's lawyer immediately moved an urgent oral plea before another division bench, led by Justice Harish Tandon, seeking a stay on Justice Gangopadhyay's order, but to no avail.

The bench, also comprising Justice Rabindranath Samanta, refused to hear the plea saying that the appeal has not been filed in the registry of the court, and hence cannot be heard as per the rules of the high court. Later, in the evening, the minister visited CBI office here for his questioning.

Chatterjee, now the state industry, commerce and parliamentary affairs minister, held the education portfolio when the scam was allegedly pulled off.

Justice Gangopadhyay, in his order, observed that he expects Chatterjee to step down as minister in the interest of justice.

He also directed all five members of a committee -- constituted by the West Bengal School Education Department in November, 2019 for monitoring pending recruitments of teaching and non-teaching staff in government-run and -aided schools -- to appear before the CBI.

The single bench directed the CBI to continue its investigation into the alleged irregularities in accordance with the orders passed by him earlier.

The division bench of Justices Talukdar and Ananda Kumar Mukherjee, while upholding orders passed by Justice Gangopadhyay, observed that principles of natural justice was not violated by the single bench order and stated that arguments made by the appellants cannot come to their aid.

Terming as ''public scam'' the alleged irregularities made in recommending appointments for teaching and non-teaching staff by SSC, the division bench said that the single bench was not wrong in ordering a probe into the alleged money trail involved.

Earlier, too, the single bench had ordered the then state education minister to appear before the CBI on April 12, in connection with the school appointment-related case.

The division bench, which was hearing several appeals connected to appointments under the School Service Commission (SSC) to posts of assistant teachers for classes IX and X, Group-C and Group-D staff, had back then stayed the single bench order.

In a 111-page judgement on the appeals, the division bench accepted recommendations of Justice (retd) R K Bag committee, instituted by the court, calling for prosecution of the then senior officials connected to the scam. The Bag committee found irregularities in appointments to Group-D and Group-C posts.

It had stated that 381 Group-C and 609 Group-D appointments were made illegally and recommended criminal proceedings against four former top officials of state School Service Commission and the incumbent president of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, Kalyanmoy Ganguly.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)