KolkataThe Calcutta High Court has directed West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee to appear before the CBI at 6 pm on Wednesday in connection with an alleged School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam, which is being probed by the central agency.
An inquiry committee constituted by the Calcutta High Court in a report submitted last month – Told how 609 illegal recruitments of Group ‘D’ employees were done by the West Bengal Central School Service Commission in 2016.
Chatterjee, a close aide of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and a senior Trinamool Congress leader, was the education minister at that time. He is currently the Minister of Industry, Commerce & Enterprise, IT & Electronics and Parliamentary Affairs.
The minister moved a division bench of Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Ravindra Samant against the summons. But the bench did not accept the matter for hearing saying that the files were not in order.
The High Court has sought a report from the CBI in the matter by 2 pm on Wednesday. A single-judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay also directed the CBI to take Chatterjee into custody if he does not cooperate with the investigation.
The bench also ordered the members of a special committee constituted by the West Bengal government to appear before the CBI at 4 pm on Wednesday to oversee the appointments.
On April 13 too, the high court had directed Chatterjee to appear before the CBI office to participate in the investigation, but a division bench of the court stayed that order hours later.
On Wednesday, a division bench of Justice Subrata Talukdar and Justice Anand Kumar Mukhopadhyay, while hearing the matter, upheld Justice Gangopadhyay’s order and said, “It is clear that a public scam has taken place in which a high-ranking official of the Education Department, Government of West Bengal Are included. , The Single Bench was well within its powers and there was no prejudice to its order. Single Bench is just in its functions. ,
The bench then referred the matter to a single-judge bench, which ordered Chatterjee to appear before the CBI.
(Edited by Polomi Banerjee)
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