Calcutta HC's division bench upholds order on central agency probe in municipalities job scam case

Calcutta High Court's division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Partha Sarathi Chatterjee on Thursday upheld an earlier order of a single-judge bench for a central agency probe in the multi-crore municipalities recruitment scam in West Bengal.

While upholding the earlier order, the division bench observed that the school recruitment case and municipal recruitment case are interlinked.

"Same individuals are involved in both cases. Such scams have left the younger generation highly disillusioned. Hence, there is no alternative to the central agency probe in the matter. The direction of the single-judge bench was appropriate. The corruption was meant for illegally earning money. This case had an impact on the lives of the common people," the division bench observed.

In fact, the municipalities' recruitment case surfaced when the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths were conducting raid and search operations at the residence of the private real estate promoter Ayan Sil in connection with the multi-crore school recruitment cases.

The order for a central probe in the case was originally given by the Calcutta High Court's single-judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay. The state government first approached the Supreme Court challenging the decision. However, the apex court referred the matter back to the Calcutta High Court.

Thereafter, the state government approached Calcutta High Court's single-judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha. However, Justice Singh upheld the order by Justice Gangopadhyay and directed the central agencies to continue with their probe in the matter.

Thereafter, the state government approached the Calcutta High Court's division bench of Justice Arijit Banerjee and Justice Apurba Sinha Ray, which recused from hearing, claiming that the matter was not part of the subject of hearing of that bench.

The matter was referred to the division bench of Justice Subrata Talukdar and Justice Supratim Bhattacharya, who also recused from hearing on the same ground. Finally, the matter was referred to the division bench of Justice Chakraborty and Justice Chatterjee.