Teachers' hiring: 3 Division Benches recuse from hearing Single Bench's order

kolkata: Calcutta High Court Division Bench on Monday recused from hearing Single Judge's order in connection with Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into SSC 'Group D' (non teaching staff) recruitment case.

This comes days after a single-judge bench of Justice Gangopadhyay recorded its displeasure against the bench comprising Justices Harish Tandon and Rabindranath Samanta. Following this, they separately moved another bench presided over by Justice T S Sivagnanam with the prayer for a stay on Justice Gangopadhyay's order, but it also released the matter.

Another division bench too did not hear their case when it came to them and released the matter.

On Friday, another division bench of Justices Soumen Sen and Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee stayed the single bench's order for a CBI probe until the bench of Justices Tandon and Samanta, which had been hearing the matter from the beginning, takes it up on Monday.

The Regular Division Bench on Monday informed senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya representing the illegally recruited candidates that they were recusing from hearing all the cases pertaining to the alleged recruitment scam on their personal ground. "We are not inclined to take up the matter on our personal ground", Justice Harish Tandon remarked.

On Thursday, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had directed the head to CBI to call upon SP Sinha, a former West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) advisor in the course of the day and start questioning him. The CBI interrogated SP Sinha. But the rest of the members challenged the direction of the Single Bench to avoid the CBI and approached the division bench.