Supreme Court stays Calcutta High Court order for CBI, ED probe against TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed two Calcutta High Court orders that had called for a fresh probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the former director of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education..A bench of Justices AS Bopanna and PV Sanjay Kumar granted relief to Trinamool Congress MLA Manik Bhattacharya, who had moved the apex court against orders passed by single-judge Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay on July 25 and July 26.The matter was mentioned before Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud at his chambers at 2 pm, and subsequently got listed for hearing at 3 pm before the division bench.The division bench granted interim relief to Bhattacharya after noting that he was not a party to the proceedings before the High Court. "When it is evident that the petitioner is not a party to the said writ proceedings and certain orders have been made to his detriment, in any event, before this Court ultimately decides the said matter no further prejudice shall be caused to the petitioner. In that view, the orders dated 25.07.2023 and 26.07.2023 and further proceedings thereto shall remain stayed", the stay order by the top court said.The apex court also sought the response of the West Bengal government in the matter..Bhattacharya moved the apex court alleging that the single-judge had made accusations against him and observations against his wife and son, which were uncalled for, especially since he was not a party to the proceedings.Pertinently, it was pointed out that in one of the orders under challenge, Justice Gangopadhyay had directed the CBI to produce before the court the video footage of Bhattacharya's interrogation."These directions are passed despite the fact that the Petitioner is already in a correctional home and could not have in any manner interfered with the investigation. The effect of the order is that the petitioner is deprived on his legal remedies to file necessary challenge to the Impugned orders."The petition, filed through advocate Diksha Rai, stressed that the order for a central agency probe was passed without impleading them or hearing even the West Bengal Board of Primary Education..Supreme Court in late evening hearing stays Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay direction to apex court Secretary General.The Supreme Court had last month partially set aside an interim order of the Calcutta High Court directing the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) to conduct a fresh selection exercise for 32,000 teacher posts before the end of August 2023.That interim order had, in fact, stayed the order of Justice Gangopadhyay who had set aside the appointments in question, relating to the alleged West Bengal school jobs for cash scam.By an order passed on May 12, Justice Gangopadhyay had cancelled the appointments of the teachers saying he could smell "stinking rats" in the the recruitments scam.The single judge has been hearing matters related to illegal recruitment in schools in West Bengal. The judge was told that during the recruitment process held in 2016, thousands of "untrained" candidates were appointed despite their scoring less in the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) and other counts.The single judge had inferred that to recruit such candidates who scored less, they were given extra marks or maximum marks in aptitude tests which were shown to be conducted only on paper. The judge had also noted that no selection committee was constituted for the purpose of selecting eligible candidates. Instead, this was done by an outside agency, a third party that was not at all a part of the Education Board..[Read order]