Shanta Mondal, a teacher against whom a CBI probe was ordered by a single bench of the Jalpaiguri circuit bench of the high court after she allegedly managed three transfers in as many years, approached the divisional bench of the high court on Thursday.

Her lawyer Kalyan Banerjee, also a Trinamul MP, appealed to the divisional bench against the order of the single bench and said it can’t direct CBI to investigate the charge.

“A single bench cannot direct the CBI to probe the charge of a teacher who managed to get a transfer. A justice has some power, but he will also have to follow the law and cannot threaten a teacher to take away her job,” Banerjee told the media after submitting his argument before the division bench at Jalpaiguri.

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 state government’s alleged granting of three transfers to Mondal in three years.

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay in his August 6 order had stated: “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”.

“The teacher (Tarafdar), who had filed litigation, is not a contender for the headmaster’s post and because of this he cannot file any case against Mondal. Nobody appealed to the single bench for a CBI probe about the teacher (Mondal)’s transfer,” Banerjee said.

The lawyer said that a final verdict is likely on Friday.

Ekramul Bari, the lawyer for petitioner Tarafdar, said: “The court asked us if we demanded a probe by CBI, which we didn’t.”

Mondal was an assistant teacher of Sri Guru Vidyamandri High School in Siliguri in 2019.

“In 2019, she appeared 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,” Bari had earlier said.

It is alleged that Mondal applied for a transfer to another school soon. “Her transfer was considered by the commissioner of school education of that point of time and she was transferred to another school in Siliguri,” said Bari.

Allegedly, Mondal did not join the new school in Siliguri but sought another transfer on “special grounds” that were “not disclosed”, Bari said.

Mondal was again transferred to Sri Guru Vidyamandir High School. “Following the transfer, my client filed a writ petition (in 2021). My client is not against filling up of the headmaster post but is protesting the way the transfers were managed,” Bari had said.