The Calcutta High Court’s division bench on Friday upheld a single bench order for the CBI to conduct a preliminary probe into allegations of irregularities in teacher appointments in schools run by the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) in the Hills. The court has requested a report by April 25.
The state government had challenged the single bench order, questioning the credibility of mysterious letters regarding the alleged irregularities, which bore the sender’s address as “Keoratala Mahashmashan.”
A division bench of justices Harish Tandon and Madhuresh Prasad directed the CBI to submit the report following its preliminary investigation by April 25. The state police agency, CID, is permitted to continue its investigation into the alleged irregular appointments in GTA-run schools in Darjeeling, Kalimpong, and Kurseong.
The bench also instructed the Bidhannagar Police to file an affidavit explaining its decision not to file an FIR upon receiving a complaint from the state education department.
The state education department lodged the complaint after a single bench of Justice Biswajit Basu mandated a CID investigation into a petition claiming that over 700 appointments had been made in the GTA area without the approval of the West Bengal School Service Commission.
State counsel Sirsanya Bandopadhyay had submitted an inquiry committee report, which included the names of a former minister and a politician from the Hills, to Justice Basu. Senior counsel Bikash Bhattacharya highlighted GTA secretary Tapas Bagchi’s assertion that all appointments were made without following proper procedures.
