The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked a special CBI court in Calcutta to take up on a “day-to-day” basis and decide “within 10 days” the bail plea of Trinamool leader Kuntal Ghosh and sought a response from the Enforcement Directorate on the bail plea of former education minister Partha Chatterjee, both accused of being involved in irregularities in recruitments in government-aided schools in Bengal.
A bench of justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan, before whom two separate petitions were filed, posted the cases for further hearing on October 17.
Ghosh, represented by advocate M.S. Khan, complained that his bail was hanging indefinitely as the judge who had heard the plea had been transferred and a new judge had taken over.
Ghosh was arrested by the ED on January 21 last year and has since been in jail.
The court after hearing Ghosh’s plea, gave the order: “Special CBI Court… is directed to take up the bail matter of the Petitioner on day-to-day basis and decide the same within 10 days and send a compliance report.”
In a separate order, the bench issued a notice to the ED on Chatterjee’s bail application challenging Calcutta High Court’s order rejecting his bail plea in the teacher recruitment case.
Senior advocate and former attorney general Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared for Chatterjee, argued he was 74 and was suffering from various ailments and facing incarceration for over two years.
The bench issued a notice and sought a reply from the ED on Chatterjee’s bail plea.