Calcutta HC declines to stay CBI probe in teacher recruitment scam

Kolkata: In a judgement that has served as a setback for the West Bengal government, the Calcutta High Court on Thursday refused to provide an interim stay on a single judge-bench's order for a CBI inquiry in the alleged primary teachers' recruitment scam.

On June 13, a single-judge bench of Justice Avijit Gangopadhyay ordered an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the hiring of primary teachers by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) in 2014 and also ordered the immediate cancellation of the appointment of 269 candidates for the post.

On June 16, the WBPEE moved the division bench of Justice Subrata Talukdar and Justice Lapita Banerjee seeking an interim stay on the CBI probe in the matter.

The first hearing in the matter took place on Thursday. But the division bench refused to give an interim stay on the ongoing CBI inquiry in the matter.

The next hearing will be on June 30, when all the parties in the case will have to submit their arguments in the form of affidavits.

On Thursday, the division bench raised the same query as to why extra marks were credited only to select candidates whose appointments were cancelled earlier by the single-judge bench of Justice Gangopadhyay. It was observed that if there was any mistake in the question paper, then an additional mark would have been allotted without any bias to all the candidates appearing for the examination.

Justice Gangopadhyay has now ordered the removal of WBBPE President, Dr. Manik Bhattacharya, also a Trinamool Congress MLA and the WBBPE has challenged that order as well.