Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee (File) A Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday extended by four weeks its stay on a single-judge order from the day before directing West Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee to appear before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with its investigation into an alleged recruitment scam.
While the case was being heard, a commotion occurred outside the courtroom of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay who had told Chatterjee to appear before the central agency at 5.30 pm on Tuesday in connection with its investigation into alleged irregularities in recruitment by the School Service Commission (SSC). Pro-Trinamool Congress (TMC) lawyers tried to stop others from entering courtroom 17, including lawyers Bikash Bhattacharya and Bilwadal Bhattacharya.
Criticising the protesters, Bar Association president Arunabha Ghosh, said, “What has happened in the High Court since Tuesday is unprecedented. The Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court called me and I said, ‘You have to take action against this’. If anybody does not like the judgment of any judge, they can appeal to a higher court, even the Supreme Court. But, this type of hooliganism cannot be tolerated.”
On Tuesday, the Division Bench of Justices Subrata Talukder and Ananda Kumar Mukherjee had stayed Justice Gangopadhyay’s order within half an hour of it being issued and posted the matter for hearing from 10.30 am on Wednesday.
Extending the stay for four weeks, the judges said on Wednesday that the CBI cannot investigate the case till the matter was disposed of. The court ordered the Justice Ranjit Bagh Committee to enquire into the alleged Group C scam. The committee had earlier conducted an inquiry into alleged irregularities in “Group D” recruitment.
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