CBI municipality jobs probe: West Bengal to move division bench

KOLKATA: The state sought permission of the Calcutta High Court division bench to file a petition against the order of Justice Amrita Sinha's single bench directing the CBI to investigate appointments in municipalities.
The division bench of justices Arijit Banerjee and Apurba Sinha Ray on Tuesday granted the state leave to file an appeal petition.
Justice Sinha had on May 12 dismissed the state's review application against Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay's go-ahead to ED's request to institute a separate CBI enquiry on appointments in municipalities. The state had moved the review application after the Supreme Court granted leave and directed the HC to take "considered view" after hearing the parties.
The state had sought review on the grounds that the single bench of Justice Gangopadhyay, assigned to hear the primary education case, had no jurisdiction to hear matters other than those assigned by the Chief Justice of Calcutta HC. The advocate general had pointed out to the court that investigation in matters relating to law and order should have been given to state agencies, other than exceptional circumstances, as law and order comes under the State List.
Justice Sinha, while setting aside the state's review application on Friday, observed, "It is true that the Hon'ble judge did not have the determination to take up matters relating to municipalities on the said date. But it is also true that the origin of the matter was within the determination of education matters which the Hon'ble judge was dealing with."
The ED had approached Justice Gangopadhyay's court after they found "incriminating documents" about appointments in municipalities, while conducting searches at real estate developer Ayan Sil's Salt Lake office in connection with the school recruitment case.
Justice Sinha did not accept the state's argument that the probe should have been handed to a state agency and not CBI.