Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed the CBI, which is the prosecuting authority in a school jobs case where some arrested former public servants have made bail prayers, to submit a report with regard to the sanctioning authority for their prosecution.
The order came after the counsel of former West Bengal School Service Commission chairman Subires Bhattacharyya and former state secondary education board president Kalyanmoy Ganguly contended that they were appointed by the governor of the state.
A division bench presided by Justice Joymalya Bagchi directed the deputy solicitor general to indicate in the report whether the appropriate sanctioning authority had been approached by the CBI or not.
The bench directed him to submit the report on Tuesday, when further hearing of the matter will be taken up.
It was stated by the two accused persons' counsel, Sandipan Ganguly, that the sanctioning authority for their prosecution is the West Bengal governor, as he is the appointing authority, and not the state's chief secretary.
The governor has already granted sanction for the prosecution of former West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee, the CBI had stated before the court earlier.
The agency had stated that its application for sanction to prosecute some former public servants accused in the case was pending before the state's chief secretary.
The bench, also comprising Justice Gaurang Kanth, asked deputy solicitor general Dhiraj Trivedi, representing the CBI, to inform the court as to in whose case sanction was required from the governor and in whose case, it was required from the state's chief secretary.
The court, which had made certain observations against the chief secretary during earlier hearings of the matter over alleged delay in taking a decision on grant of sanction for prosecution, said that this point had not been raised by any of the parties in the case during earlier hearings.
Partha Chatterjee, who held the education portfolio from 2011 to 2021, is one of the accused in custody and moved a bail application before it along with other former public servants who were arrested in the case.
The chief secretary, through the state's advocate general, on Thursday prayed for seven weeks' time to take a decision on an application for sanction by the CBI.
The court had earlier directed the chief secretary to take a decision on the CBI application for sanction to prosecute the former public servants.
The division bench is jointly hearing the bail prayers of Chatterjee, Subires Bhattacharyya, Kalyanmoy Ganguly, former secretary of West Bengal School Service Commission Ashok Saha and former chairman of SSC's advisory committee Santi Prasad Sinha, who are in custody for about two years in connection with the school jobs irregularities case.