The Supreme Court on Friday took suo motu cognisance of an order passed by a single-judge bench of Calcutta High Court that termed as “illegal and ignored” an order of a division bench of the court in a case of alleged irregularities in the admission of MBBS candidates in government-run medical colleges in Bengal.
The apex court formed a five-judge constitution bench which will take up the matter in a special hearing on Saturday. The bench is made up of Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B.R. Gavai, Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose.
Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the high court had on Wednesday ordered a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in admission of MBBS candidates under the reserved category.
Later that day, following an appeal by the state government, the order was stayed by a division bench of the court headed by Justice Soumen Sen.
On Thursday, the division bench quashed an FIR registered by the CBI in the case.
The quashing led Justice Gangopadhyay to mention in an open court that the order passed by the division bench was not in accordance with law. He then directed the CBI to continue with the probe.
Justice Gangopadhyay had on Thursday held that the order passed by the division bench of Justices Sen and Uday Kumar was illegal and had to be ignored.
Initially, the single-judge bench had directed a CBI investigation saying it had no faith in the state police.
The bench was acting on a petition by MBBS candidate Ishita Soren, who alleged that she had failed to get a berth in the medical course despite scoring the required marks in the entrance test and being eligible for admission under the reserved category.
She had also mentioned that 27 candidates had enrolled in the course based on fake caste certificates furnished by them.