A division bench of Calcutta High Court’s circuit bench in Jalpaiguri on Friday issued an interim stay on an order passed by a single bench that had directed the CBI to probe into an allegation of illegal transfer of a headmistress in north Bengal.

Shanta Mondal was allegedly transferred three times in three years, which a petitioner complained was a violation of administrative norms that did not permit any teacher to be shifted within five years of joining the service.Last week, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the circuit bench had directed the CBI to investigate the matter.

“As it has been alleged by the petitioner that the lady has been illegally transferred thrice which is wholly against the law, I direct CBI to investigate the matter along with other matters relating to the School Service Commission and Education Department,” Justice Gangopadhyay had ordered.Against the single bench order, Mondal moved an appeal before the division bench of the circuit bench, which was headed by Justice Ravi Krishan Kapur.

The division bench, while staying the order passed by Justice Gangopadhay, decided to hear the appeal in detail after four weeks, sources said.

Mondal was represented by lawyer Kalyan Banerjee, a Trinamul Congress MP.

“There was no criminal offence behind the transfer order of Shanta Mondal. Keeping this in view, the single bench of the high court (Jalpaiguri circuit bench) cannot direct the CBI to investigate the charge. From now, the hearing of this case will be before the division bench, not the single bench,” Sourav Ganguly, the lawyer of the education department, said on Friday.

Prasun Sundar Tarafdar, the assistant headmaster of Sri Guru Vidyamandir High School of Champasari in Siliguri, had filed a writ petition before the court in 2021 questioning the government’s alleged transfer of Mondal three times in three years. Mondal was an assistant teacher of Sri Guru Vidyamandri High School in Siliguri in 2019. In 2019, she appeared for the test for the post of headmaster/headmistress under the School Service Commission and was appointed as headmistress of Birpara Girls’ High School (in Alipurduar) in December that year. It is alleged that Mondal had applied for a transfer to another school soon and her plea was considered by the then commissioner of school education.

Accordingly, she was transferred to another school in Siliguri.There are allegations that Mondal did not join the new school in Siliguri but sought another transfer on “special grounds” that were “not disclosed. Mondal was then transferred to Sri Guru Vidyamandir High School, after which Tarafdar filed a petition against Mondal.