A division bench of the high court on Friday stayed till Monday an order passed by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the court directing the CBI to interrogate and start proceedings against S.P. Sinha, a former chief adviser to the West Bengal School Service Commission.
The case is related to allegations of corruption in the recruitment of staff for schools by the School Service Commission (SSC).
In an interim order, the division bench headed by Justice Soumen Sen stayed Justice Gangopadhyay’s order till April 4 and said the case would be heard by the division bench headed by Justice Harish Tandon.
Justice Tandon’s division bench has been hearing cases related to similar allegations.
On Thursday, Justice Gangopadhyay had asked the CBI to interrogate Sinha by Thursday midnight and table a report on Friday. The CBI questioned Sinha late on Thursday.
When the case came up for hearing before Justice Gangopadhyay on Friday, CBI counsel Y.J. Dastoor submitted that the agency could not start proceedings against Sinha as no FIR had been lodged. Dastoor prayed for permission to lodge the FIR.
Justice Gangopadhyay gave the permission and said four other former members of the advisory committee should also be interrogated.
The four are former education minister Partha Chatterjee’s personal secretary S. Acharya; officer on special duty P.K. Bandyopadhyay; deputy director of the education department, A.K. Sarkar; and law officer of the department, T. Panja.
Since Sinha had moved an appeal before the division bench headed by Justice Soumen Sen against Thursday’s order, he could obtain a stay. The four others have yet to obtain a stay.
“The copy of the order (Friday’s order by Justice Gangopadhyay) has not been served. So we could not appeal before the division bench today,” a lawyer from the state government’s panel said.
Senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, who represents one of the petitioners who have alleged corruption in recruitment, said: “The CBI can interrogate those four… as the division bench has not stayed that order.”
Three petitions that came up before Justice Gangopadhyay alleged that candidates whose names were not on the merit list got jobs as teachers and Group C and D staff.
Justice Gangopadhyay held the appointments illegal and issued three orders for a CBI probe. But the division bench headed by Justice Tandon stayed all three orders and formed a committee to scan the matter.
Justice Gangopadhyay asked Sinha, former SSC chief advisor, to furnish his property details. Following an appeal, Justice Tandon's division bench said Sinha could submit the details in a sealed cover.
Justice Gangopadhyay criticised the division bench and issued an administrative order seeking intervention of the Chief Justice of the High Court and Chief Justice of India.