Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the high court on Tuesday afternoon directed minister Partha Chatterjee to appear before the CBI by 5.30pm and gave the agency liberty to arrest him in connection with alleged irregularities in recruitment of teachers and other staff for schools.
Soon after, a division bench heard an appeal by the state’s counsel and granted a day’s stay on the operation of Justice Gangopadhyay’s order. The state’s appeal will be heard on Wednesday.
Chatterjee, now industry, IT, parliamentary affairs and public enterprises and industrial reconstruction minister, was education minister when the School Service Commission (SSC) made the recruitments that are under the court’s scanner.
He said at a press conference later in the day: “I will not comment on judicial proceedings. Law will take its course.”
Justice Gangopadhyay also said in his order that Chatterjee would not be allowed to be hospitalised to avoid the CBI investigation, something other Trinamul Congress heavyweights have been accused of doing.
Soon after the order, a team of lawyers from the state panel moved the division bench headed by Justice Subrata Talukdar, recently assigned by the chief justice to hear appeals in the SSC case after four other division benches of the court refused to hear them.
Earlier, Justice Gangopadhyay had ordered the CBI to interrogate former chairman of the SSC advisory committee, S.P. Sinha, and other former members of the panel.
The court had asked the CBI to file a report after interrogating the former members.
The accused were questioned by the central investigating agency on April 8. In response to that order, the CBI placed a report before the court on Tuesday. After going through the report, the judge issued the order asking Chatterjee to appear before the CBI.
The press conference addressed by Chatterjee was also attended by Trinamul leaders and his colleagues Firhad Hakim and Chandrima Bhattacharya.
A senior Trinamul leader said the press conference was held to send out a message that the party was with Chatterjee on the issue.
Lawyers’ meeting
Members of a Trinamul-affiliated lawyers’ organisation had submitted a request to Calcutta High Court Bar Association to adopt a resolution to boycott Justice Gangopadhyay’s court for allegedly issuing orders bypassing a division bench.
The meeting was convened during the day by Arunava Ghosh, president of the association. Later, Ghosh issued a statement saying he was forced to end the meeting without any resolution because of a pandemonium.