The Division Bench of Calcutta High Court on Wednesday granted two weeks stay on the Single Bench order which directed the state to hand over the documents to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) regarding the alleged fake caste certificates for admission in medical colleges.
Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had directed on Wednesday morning that the matter will be investigated by CBI. The Advocate General (AG) mentioned the matter before the Division Bench with an oaral prayer for stay of CBI investigation on the ground that the state was not allowed to rely on the bunch of documents to show that the state has taken all reasonable steps towards a fair investigation. The AG further submitted that the state had detected a large number of fake caste certificates and had cancelled all on verification process, which had commenced prior to the filing of the writ petition. It was also submitted that FIRs were lodged against the erring officials and departmental proceedings have been initiated against them.
The Division Bench was apprised that the writ petitioners had not made prayer of CBI probe in the matter. “If we take the submission of Advocate General to be correct and do not doubt the veracity of the statement made by Advocate General, we are of the view that unless there is a prayer in the writ petition for CBI investigation or a case is made out for CBI investigation, the right of the state to conduct fair and impartial investigation by its agencies cannot be lightly interfered with as it would result in disruption of the co-operative federal structure of the country. Unless the autonomy of the State to investigate into the issue is decided against the State, no such direction could have been passed,” the Division Bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Uday Kumar observed. The matter will be heard on Thursday.