W. Bengal Teachers Recruitment Scam: HC Dismisses State’s Plea Against Transfer Of Investigation

The Calcutta High Court on Friday dismissed the West Bengal government’s review application against the High Court’s order transferring the investigation into the teachers recruitment scam to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The order was passed by a single bench of Justice Amrita Sinha.

“The review application is dismissed. You may get the detailed order on the High Court website,” Justice Sinha ordered.

The State Government had filed the petition challenging the order passed by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, when he was seized of the case following his interview with a Bengali news channel in which he had made statements against TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee who is also being probed in the matter.

Then, the case was reassigned to Justice Sinha pursuant to the order of the Supreme Court.

On May 8, the bench reserved its decision in the case after hearing submissions from the State government’s Advocate General (AG) SN Mookherjee and also the Deputy Solicitor General Billwadal Bhattacharyya, who represented the CBI.

AG Mookherjee contended that Justice Gangopadhyay lacked the jurisdiction and determination to pass orders on the specified date, and thus the CBI probe order is invalid.

He also contended that if a crime occurs in the state, it is a matter of law and order within the state, and thus only the state can investigate it.

“The investigation could be transferred to the CBI or even ED, only in rarest of rare instances and the instant case, as per me, isn’t a rarest of rare case. In fact, the concerned department wasn’t available before the court. Due to government holiday, all public offices were shut that day,” Mookherjee pointed out.