Orders for probe being stayed by higher Bench, says Calcutta HC Judge

My hands are being tied again and again, he writes to CJI

A judge of the Calcutta High Court, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, has brought to the notice of the Chief Justice of India that decisions by his court, where he directed a CBI probe into allegations of corruption in the recruitment of teachers and non-teaching staff, have been stayed by a Division Bench. He has also written to the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court on this.

“I appeal to the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to look into the matter and probe the ongoing corruption,” Justice Gangopadhyay said.

“My hands are being tied again and again,” the HC judge said in a written administrative directive. Justice Gangopadhyay was referring to orders passed by his court for a CBI probe into an alleged recruitment scam of teachers in the State-run schools, and also in the recruitment of group C and group D staff. On four occasions orders for a CBI probe passed by his court were stayed by a Division Bench of the High Court.

Justice Gangopadhyay urged the Chief Justices to look into who benefitted from the corruption. He also sought their intervention in the interest of natural justice. 

In the court, Justice Gangopadhyay said that a lawyer had come to him on Tuesday to speak on behalf of an influential politician in all these cases. “I gave him a cup of coffee and told him to go. If the Chief Justice wants to know the name of that person, I will say so,” Justice Gangopadhyay said. 

Meanwhile, on Tuesday a Division Bench of Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Rabindranath Samanta upheld Justice Gangopadhyay’s order directing former West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) former advisor S.P. Sinha to furnish details of his properties to the court. 

Justice Gangopadhyay had earlier directed S. P. Sinha, advisor to the SSC and the convener of a five-member committee constituted by the State’s Education Department, to disclose in an affidavit the details of his assets after suspecting corruption in recent years. Recruitment of teachers in the State is being carried out by the SSC in West Bengal.