Calcutta High Court Bench Questions CBI’s Approach in School Recruitment Case

A Calcutta High Court bench, comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Gaurang Kanth, has questioned the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) approach in a case involving alleged irregularities in school recruitments. The bench had previously rebuked Bengal’s chief secretary, B.P. Gopalika, for an alleged delay in sanctioning the trial against state government officials arrested in the case.

However, on Friday, the counsel representing one of the accused argued that the chief secretary was not the appropriate authority to grant the sanction. Instead, the CBI should have approached the governor, who appointed his client. The accused, Subires Bhattacharyya, served as the chairman of the West Bengal School Service Commission from 2014 to 2018, and Kalyanmoy Ganguly, another accused in the case, was the president of the state secondary education board from 2021 to 2022.

The CBI had submitted before the division bench that it had applied for approval to initiate the trial against Bhattacharyya and Ganguly from the chief secretary two years ago. However, the top bureaucrat of the state had yet to give his nod.

The bench had thrice issued orders to the incumbent chief secretary, asking him to state why he was not issuing approval for the trial. The chief secretary had on April 24 filed an application in the high court praying for more time to file an affidavit stating the reasons.

Justice Bagchi had given the government time till May 2 for obeying the court order, warning that the state would have to face the consequences otherwise. However, the submission from Bhattacharyya’s lawyer prompted Justice Bagchi to say, “Actually, the CBI does not have the idea from whom it should obtain the approval. This court unnecessarily criticised the state chief secretary.”

The bench has fixed the matter for hearing on May 7 and directed the additional solicitor general to be present in the court during the hearing.