The high court on Tuesday came down on the Bengal chief secretary after he submitted a report that said the state can reveal only after the Lok Sabha polls its stand on giving consent to the CBI to start the trial of the officials arrested for alleged irregularities in school recruitments.
The seven-phase general election, scheduled to start on April 19, ends in the first week of June. The polls in Bengal will be held in each leg of the seven-phase elections.
On Tuesday, the court said the chief secretary would have to submit a report on the state government’s stand by April 23. “Or else the court would be forced to summon the chief secretary,” the division bench headed by Justice Joymalya Bagchi said.
Questioning the chief secretary's contention, Justice Bagchi said: “Normal functioning of the government should not be halted because of the conduct of the polls. How are the polls in any way connected to the process of approving the trial of an accused?”
“Inform the Court whether FIRs are being registered during the elections and whether police are taking action against the accused. If yes, what is the difficulty in approving the trial of an accused?”
The arrested state government officials include Subires Bhattacharyya, who was chairman of the West Bengal School Service Commission from 2014 to 2018; S.P. Sinha, who was chairman of the school service commission's advisory committee from 2016 to 2021; and Ashok Kumar Saha, who was chairman of the SSC from January to December 2020.
On October 25, 2022, the CBI had filed a chargesheet against 12 people, including former officials of the SSC, in connection with the alleged illegal recruitment of assistant teachers for Classes IX and X in government-aided schools in the state.
About one-and-a-half years have passed since the filing of the chargesheet, but the trial has not started in the absence of approval from the chief secretary.
The governor has approved the trial of former education minister Partha Chatterjee and the Speaker of the Assembly has approved the trial of two MLAs, Jiban Krishna Saha and Manik Bhattacharya, in connection with the alleged irregularities.
Bhattacharya is a former president of the state primary education board.
The investigating agency (CBI) is awaiting approval from the state government to start the trial of the government officials in custody.
On April 3, the division bench had expressed its dissatisfaction over the alleged failure of the chief secretary in submitting an affidavit stating the reason for not giving concurrence yet to the CBI to initiate the trial of the arrested state government officials.
The displeasure was expressed as he failed to carry out a March 22 order of the court asking him to file an affidavit by April 3.
Justice Bagchi said during the hearing on Tuesday: “It seems the chief secretary is causing delay in the process. The accused persons are getting privileges because of the chief secretary. The chief secretary is supposed to act rising above political interests.”
Justice Bagchi said the delay by the chief secretary could force the investigating agencies to seek a transfer of the trial to another state. “Now, if the agency wants a transfer of the trial to another state, what should the court do?”
The CBI counsel had said during earlier hearings that the investigating agency had applied to the chief secretary “months ago” for approval but did not get any reply.
At this, the bench issued an order on March 22 asking the chief secretary to file an affidavit by April 3 stating the reasons for the delay.