Within 24 hours of the order of a CBI probe into alleged corruption in the appointment of 25 Group-D school employees by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) and the School Service Commission (SSC), the two wings of the state government have moved a division bench of Calcutta High Court against it.
The appeal will be heard at 10.30am on Wednesday by the division bench headed by Justice Harish Tandon.
On Monday, single-bench judge Justice Abhijit Gangyopadhyay had handed the probe into the alleged illegal appointments to the CBI.
At 4pm on Wednesday, Justice Gangyopadhyay is scheduled to hand over the documents relating to appointments over to the CBI.
The board and the SSC had opposed a probe by the CBI and wanted that a committee of three retired high court judges to look into the matter.
The judge asked the CBI to ensure that the investigation be impartial.
Both the board and the council have told the court that they had not issued any recommendation for the 25 appointments in question.
Three separate PILs had alleged that 25 Group-D staff had been appointed in 2019 even after expiry of a 2016 panel on the basis of recommendations.
The allegation had prompted Justice Gangyopadhay to seek affidavits from the board and the SSC.
In their affidavits, both the departments informed the court that they had not recommended any name for appointments in the said posts on or after May 4, 2019.
SC-ST ‘mix-up’
A petition was moved before Chief Justice Prakash Srivastava’s division bench on Tuesday alleging that some Scheduled Tribe candidates had been placed on the panel for Scheduled Caste candidates by the School Service Commission.
The division bench asked the state government to file an affidavit by December 21 stating its view in regard to petitioner’s contentions.