Kolkata, May 18: The West Bengal government on Wednesday received two jolts one after the other at the Calcutta High Court, pertaining to the recruitment irregularities in the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).
On the one hand, a division bench of Justice Subrata Talukdar and Justice Ananda Kumar Mukherjee upheld the earlier order by the single judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay ordering CBI inquiry in all the seven cases pertaining to WBSSC recruitment irregularities.
Before the state government could fathom the shock, another jolt came as the single judge bench of Justice Gangopadhyay ordered the then state Education Minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general, Partha Chatterjee to be present at the CBI office at Nizam Palace in central Kolkata on Wednesday by 6 p.m. Justice Gangopadhyay has also authorized the central agency sleuths to even arrest Chatterjee, currently the state Commerce & Industry Minister, if the latter does not cooperate in the process of investigation.
Justice Gangopadhyay also suggested to Chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Governor Jagdeep Dhankar to relieve Chatterjee from all state government posts with immediate effect.
Incidentally on Tuesday, while ordering CBI inquiry for recruitment of political science teachers for Class-XI and Class-XII in state-run schools of West Bengal, Justice Gangopadhyay gave the same suggestion to the Chief Minister and the governor regarding West Bengal Minister of state for Education Paresh Chandra Adhikari, whose daughter, Ankita Ahikari, allegedly got appointment, even without figuring in the merit list and appearing for personality test. Though Adhikari was supposed to appear at the CBI office by 8 p.m. on Tuesday, there was no communication from him till then. As per the latest report available, Adhikari has decided to challenge the single judge bench order in a division bench.
While passing the order on Wednesday, the division bench of the Calcutta High Court also questioned the role of the appointment committee of the WBSSC in recruitment irregularities. The division bench also ordered cancellation of appointment of all those who were recruited flouting the norms.
