The Bengal government on Monday informed Calcutta High Court that it has withdrawn a special leave petition (SLP) filed in the Supreme Court challenging an order by a single-judge bench of the high court for a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in recruitment in municipalities.
After the withdrawal was announced, a Calcutta High Court division bench headed by Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty ended the hearing of the appeal against Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay’s order on April 21. The bench reserved its verdict.
The division bench had earlier held that since the SLP was pending before the Supreme Court for hearing, a subordinate division bench should not hear the case.
It has been alleged that civic jobs were sold for money.
In the high court, state counsel Kalyan Banerjee said the state police were competent to conduct the probe and that there was no need to ask the CBI and the ED to be involved.
“There is no point in handing over a probe to the central agencies at the very onset. Have the state police failed?” Banerjee asked.
“The Supreme Court has repeatedly said high courts can’t mechanically hand over cases to central agencies,” Banerjee told the court.
CBI’s counsel Billwadal Bhattacharya informed the court that the agency had made good progress in the case and enough documents had been collated to prove that it was a fit case for a CBI probe.