KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress minister Partha Chatterjee filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking protection against coercive steps by CBI during investigation into the “massive irregularities” in appointments in state-aided schools. The apex court is likely to hear it on Friday.
Chatterjee stated in the SLP that complainants who had moved the Calcutta High Court so far didn’t mention him as a respondent. The respondent was always the ‘State of West Bengal’. Despite that, Chatterjee claimed, a single bench of Calcutta High Court directed him to appear for CBI questioning while hearing another petition on irregular appointments of Group D staff in state-aided schools.
Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay also allowed CBI to take Chatterjee in custody, if necessary, if he didn’t cooperate with it during questioning.
The Calcutta HC had appointed an inquiry panel under retired HC judge Ranjit Kumar Bag. The panel, in its 1,400-page report, held that the five-member committee appointed by the education department under Chatterjee was “not valid under law”.
On Thursday, Chatterjee also moved the division bench of justices Subrata Talukdar and Ananda Kumar Mukherjee against the single bench order asking him to appear for CBI questioning. The division bench has fixed the hearing of the appeal on Friday.
Chatterjee, also the TMC secretary general, called on party state president Subrata Bakshi to apprise him about the Supreme Court move. Political observers read the move in the context of TMC leader Kunal Ghosh saying on Wednesday that if there were “mistakes” in the otherwise “good work” of the Mamata Banerjee government, the party will never support them.
