The Calcutta High Court has directed Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee to appear before CBI by 6pm of Wednesday in connection with the controversial appointments of teachers to government-aided schools on the recommendations of the School Service Commission.

According to anandabazar.com, if Chatterjee fails to appear within the stipulated time, he could be taken into CBI custody.

Earlier, Chatterjee colleague Paresh Adhikary was supposed to depose before the CBI on Tuesday. This is the same bench headed by Justice Abhijit Bandopadhyay which has directed Chatterjee to appear before the CBI.

Justice Bandopadhyay according to anandabazar.com, is hopeful that the senior minister in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet would resign from his ministerial post. He has also appealed to Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and Mamata to remove Chatterjee from his post.

Earlier, a division bench of the Calcutta High court upheld orders of a single bench that directed CBI to inquire into alleged illegal appointments by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education.

Terming irregularities in recommending appointments of teaching and non-teaching staff by SSC as a public scam, the division bench, comprising justices Subrata Talukder and A K Mukherjee, said that the single bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay was not wrong in ordering a probe into the alleged money trail involved.

The division bench said the orders of the single bench require no intervention.

Holding that a five-member committee to oversee the appointment process for a 2016 panel for recruitment of teachers for classes 9 and 10 and group C and D staff in government-aided schools was illegal, the single bench had ordered then state education minister Partha Chatterjee to appear before the CBI.

All these orders had earlier been stayed by the division bench on a series of appeals.

Passing judgement on the appeals, the division bench accepted recommendations of the Justice R K Bag Committee calling for prosecution of the then senior officials connected to the scam.