Applying for Chief Secy’s sanction: HC pulls up CBI

Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was pulled up by the Calcutta High Court for applying to the Chief Secretary for sanction to prosecute former ministers and public servants in recruitment scam cases instead of the Governor, who was the correct sanctioning authority.

According to a news agency, the Division Bench of Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Gaurang Kanth called for a report from CBI on whether the appropriate sanctioning authority has been approached and observed that the issue needs to be sorted at the earliest.

On behalf of CBI, it was submitted that the sanction from the Chief Secretary was sought only for the prosecution of school department officials. The Court reportedly clarified that in the case of Kalyanmoy Ganguly and other former ministers, it needs to be sought from the Governor itself. The matter is scheduled to be heard on May 7.

On April 23, the Court had warned that if the Chief Secretary failed to act on the Court’s directions then they would be constrained to initiate proceedings against him.

In earlier two occasions as well, the Chief Secretary was asked to make his position clear. The Division Bench was hearing the bail applications of former minister Partha Chatterjee, Subires Bhattacharjee and Kalyanmoy Ganguly, amongst others.

According to the counsel representing them, they have been in custody for about two years and the case could not progress due to the absence of sanction.