Days after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed an FIR in Kolkata in the alleged Municipality recruitment scam case on the orders of the Calcutta High Court, the Supreme Court of India stayed the High Court order. The apex court also stayed an ongoing ED investigation in the matter for a week, on a petition filed by the West Bengal government challenging the High Court order. The ED unearthed the municipal recruitment during its probe into the teacher recruitment scam.
A Calcutta High Court bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay on Friday had ordered a CBI probe into the matter after ED said that there were common elements in the municipal and teacher recruitment scams, including common accused persons and common beneficiaries. The ED had said in a report submitted to the court that the agents, including TMC leader Ayan Sheel, involved in the school jobs bribery scam case, were also allegedly involved in the recruitment of clerks, peons, sweepers, and drivers in various municipalities in the state.
Ordering CBI probe, the high court judge had also directed the CBI to submit a report on April 28 about the steps taken based on this order. Accordingly, the CBI filed FIR on Tuesday against Ayan Sheel and his company ABS Infozone Pvt Ltd, which was engaged in the printing and evaluation of OMR sheets, for alleged manipulation of the scores of candidates.
However, on Friday the Supreme Court of India stayed the High Court order for CBI probe in the Municipal recruitment scam after a plea was filed by the state govt challenging the HC order. The Supreme Court also stayed the probe by ED and CBI into the matter for a week.
Appearing for the Mamata Banerjee govt, Kapil Sibal said that no notice was issued to the state govt while ordering the CBI probe. On the other hand, the CBI counsel stated that state govt’s counsel was already present at the High Court when the order was issued.
Hearing the arguments, a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud stayed the high court order, along with staying the ED and CBI probe in the municipal recruitment scam for one week. The court ordered the state govt to file a review petition at the high court during this period.
The Municipal Recruitment scam was detected by the ED during a search of Ayan Sheel’s Salt Lake house in the teacher recruitment case, where the agency found several documents, some of which were related to recruitments to various posts in around 60 municipalities in West Bengal.
In another related order, Supreme Court also directed the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court to reassign the matter concerning the Primary Teachers’ Recruitment Scam in West Bengal to another judge, which is currently heard by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay. The order by the CJI comes after the Supreme Court had objected to Justice Gangopadhyay’s interview with ABP Ahanda where he had talked against TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee regarding the teacher recruitment scam. The court had remarked that “judges have no business granting interviews on matters which are pending.”
After receiving the transcript of the interview, the court directed the transfer of the case to a different judge. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta objected to it, saying that judges are being targeted by political leaders against whom judgements are passed. But CJI DY Chandrachud said that order has been issued only because of commenting on an ongoing case in the interview.