The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed the West Bengal chief secretary to decide on granting sanction for prosecuting several accused persons in a school jobs scam case in the state by April 23.
The applications by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the alleged scam on an order of the high court, for grant of sanction have been pending for over one and a half years, the court said.
The high court observed if this is the circumstance in which the prosecuting agency has to work, will it have a level playing field? Expressing displeasure at the delay, a division bench presided by Justice Joymalya Bagchi directed the chief secretary to take a decision "independently and positively" on grant of sanction for prosecution of the accused persons in the school jobs scam case by April 23.
The division bench is jointly hearing the bail prayers of the state's former education minister Partha Chatterjee, former secretary of West Bengal School Service Commission Ashok Saha, ex-president of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education Kalyanmoy Ganguly and former SSC chairman Subires Bhattacharyya, who are in custody for over a year in connection with the case.
The chief secretary submitted a report on the issues of grant of sanction in the form of an affidavit before the court following an earlier direction of it.
Noting that the report is silent about the grant of sanction, the bench said that it feels that in such a situation, "how far the state of West Bengal is a neutral field for trial" is something that the prosecuting agency should consider.
"We are constrained to observe that the chief secretary has failed to apply his mind to the matter and submitted a laconic and incomplete report," the division bench, also comprising Justice Gaurang Kanth, said.
It further observed, "We are left to wonder why a responsible civil servant holding the highest office in the state has not discharged his bounden statutory duties in a prompt manner resulting in an undesirable hiatus to the progress of prosecution in cases involving deep-rooted corruption in high offices in the state." The court expressed hope that the influence of the accused persons does not have anything to do with "the recalcitrance of the chief secretary" in taking a decision on the applications by CBI.
The court said that to "insulate the chief secretary of any undesirable influence, if any, which may have prompted him not to act in an objective and prompt manner," it was directing him to act in the matter of the issuance of sanction independently and positively take a decision thereon by April 23.
The bench told the government pleader that the court needs to bring to the notice of the chief secretary how "the rule of law in the state is being stultified".
The report of the chief secretary stated that incomplete documents were handed over by the CBI in its applications for sanction for prosecution.
The counsel for CBI, Deputy Solicitor General Dhiraj Trivedi, contended that all documents with regard to the case were handed over to the sanctioning authority.
The court granted liberty to the sanctioning authority to approach the officers of CBI to obtain further documents relating to the alleged crime to enable him to decide the matter. The CBI was directed to assist the sanctioning authority as per law.
The CBI had stated before the court during the previous hearing of the matter that the governor of West Bengal had granted sanction to prosecute former minister Partha Chatterjee.
It had submitted before the court that the state's chief secretary has not yet taken a decision regarding grant of sanction to prosecute former public servants like Ashok Saha, Subiresh Bhattacharya and Kalyanmoy Ganguly.
The court had also noted that the West Bengal Assembly Speaker has granted sanction to prosecute Jiban Krishna Saha, an MLA of the ruling party.
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