In a significant development, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday dismissed the appeal filed by the West Bengal government challenging a single bench direction to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate alleged irregularities in the recruitment of staff in various municipal bodies in the state. The division bench, presided over by Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty, upheld the earlier order and emphasized the need for an uninterrupted and conclusive investigation into the connected schemes of corruption.
The case originated when Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, on April 21, directed the CBI to investigate the alleged scam in municipal recruitment in West Bengal, taking note of the findings of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) during its probe into the school jobs for bribes scam. Justice Gangopadhyay had observed that there were common agents and beneficiaries in both the school jobs and municipality recruitment cases, with the common victims being the general public.
The state government challenged the order in the Supreme Court, which did not interfere with the direction for a CBI investigation but allowed the state to file a review petition before the high court. On May 12, Justice Amrita Sinha dismissed the state's review petition against Justice Gangopadhyay's order.
The division bench, in its judgment on the appeal, noted that the ED's report revealed that the alleged perpetrators of corruption in the recruitment of primary school teachers had orchestrated a larger nefarious scheme to manipulate the recruitment process across various municipalities in West Bengal. The court observed that these instances of corruption formed a larger body of crime associated with recruitment in various government bodies and institutions, with a common thread connecting them.
The bench, comprising Justice Chakraborty and Justice Partha Sarathi Chatterjee, emphasized that corruption in recruitment processes had widened the societal gap between the privileged and the underprivileged, leading to widespread disillusionment. They stated that urgent action was necessary to address the suffering of those wronged by morally debased individuals.
The state government had claimed in its appeal that the single bench did not have the jurisdiction to direct the CBI to investigate the alleged municipality recruitment scam, as the application filed by the ED was related to illegalities in the selection process for the appointment of teachers in primary schools. However, the division bench noted that both the Department of Urban Development and Municipal Affairs, responsible for municipal recruitment and the School Education Department, responsible for teacher recruitment, were under the state government.
Given the similar nature of the offenses and the involvement of common perpetrators, the division bench upheld the single judge's direction for a CBI inquiry into the alleged irregularities in municipal appointments. This decision aims to ensure a logical conclusion to the ongoing investigations and serve the interests of justice.
The CBI had conducted a massive raid on June 7, seizing documents from 16 municipal corporations in Nadia, Hooghly, North 24 Parganas districts, and the Salt Lake municipality. The preliminary investigation by the ED suggested that the recruitment scam in civic bodies may involve a sum of ₹200 crores.
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