The Acting Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court T.S. Sivagnanam on May 2 reassigned two petitions relating to the alleged irregularities in recruitments in schools of West Bengal to Justice Amrita Sinha from the court of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay.
The transfer was in accordance with an order of the Supreme Court on April 28, where the apex court had asked the Acting Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to reassign the case to another Judge.
Facing the heat
The Supreme Court had decided to transfer the petition after calling for a transcript of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay’s interview to a news channel.
Two matters — Soumen Nandy vs State of West Bengal and Ramesh Malik vs State of West Bengal — have been reassigned to the court of Justice Amrita Sinha.
Justice Gangopadhyay has been hearing a number of petitions relating to the school job scam for over a year now. He had ordered a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate on several occasions in the scam.
Also read: SC seeks report from Calcutta HC on judge giving TV interview about pending case
The Judge had given an interview to the news channel in September 2022.
Three MLAs of the Trinamool Congress including former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and a host of officials of the education departments, touts and agents are behind bars for their alleged involvement in the scam.
The scam has rocked the politics of the State for almost a year now.
Rally on May 4
In another development, Justice Rajasekhar Mantha of the Calcutta High Court allowed protesting State government employees seeking DA (Dearness Allowance) at par with the Centre and other States, to bring out a procession on May 4.
The State administration had been withholding permission to the rally.
