Calcutta High Court Rejects WB Govt's Plea Against CBI Probe In Municipality Recruitment Scam, Says It's For State's Own Advantage

The Calcutta High Court has dismissed the review petition filed by the West Bengal government against its order transferring the probe in West Bengal Municipality Recruitment Scam to CBI.

The single judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha observed:

“It does not appear that the department of Urban Development and Municipal Affairs has suffered or may suffer any prejudice by the order sought to be reviewed. On the contrary, the Court is of the opinion that, the State including its departments, ought to cooperate with the investigating agencies and ensure that the investigation that is continuing reaches a logical conclusion at the earliest, so that the offenders can be booked and appropriately dealt with in accordance with law. The same will in return ensure to the advantage of the State authorities in identifying the persons involved in the racket of job in-lieu-of cash and the administration of the State may continue smoothly. The State authorities ought to actively assist the investigating authorities currently handling the matter, so as to free the State from the illegalities in the process of recruitment in various departments of the State.”

The review petition was filed by the State of West Bengal through the Secretary, Department of Urban Development and Municipal Affairs seeking the review of order dated April 21, 2022 passed by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay which directed for the transfer of investigation of probe to the CBI on the basis of an application filed by Enforcement Directorate. ED claimed that while investigating the ‘Teachers Appointment Scam’ (for the aspect for which ED was engaged) it came across the ‘Municipality Recruitment Scam’ in the state which have got intermingled on account of common agents and common beneficiaries and that the victim in both the cases is same i.e. “public/common people at large”.

However, the Supreme Court on April 28 directed the ED and CBI to maintain status quo with respect to the investigation in the Municipality Recruitment Scam for a week.

The Supreme Court noted that the State of West Bengal had not been served the notice of proceedings and opined that in the interest of justice the State of West Bengal be heard afresh by the High Court on the issue whether the investigation should be initiated by the CBI.

One of the grounds for filing the review application was that the Bench dealing with the matter did not have the jurisdiction to pass order on the application filed by the Enforcement Directorate to investigate any matter in connection with recruitment in the municipalities. It was submitted that the Bench in question was assigned the determination to decide matters relating to primary education under Group-II including applications connected thereto and therefore, the Court could not have passed any direction to cause investigation in connection with recruitment in the municipalities.

Another ground seeking review was that the investigation ought to be made by State agency and not by CBI as law and order is a subject matter of the State under List-II, Schedule-VII of the Constitution and therefore, the Court ought not to have directed the CBI to investigate the same circumventing the State investigating agency.

It was further stated that in the absence of a specific prayer, the Court ought not to have passed direction upon the CBI to proceed with investigation with regard to an alleged scam in recruitment under the municipalities.

The other ground for seeking review was that the department of Urban Development and Municipal Affairs was not made a party in the writ proceeding; nor any notice served upon the said department prior to moving the matter and therefore, the order ought not to have been passed without affording the department an opportunity of hearing.

Rejecting the plea, the Court noted:

“The circumstances under which the Hon’ble Judge passed the order is very evident from the order itself. The status report on the investigation conducted by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the primary teachers’ recruitment scam is quoted in the order sought to be reviewed. The report records that several crore of rupees, documents/electronic evidences were seized from several high ranking officials of the government including the Minister-in-Charge of Education, Member of the Legislative Assembly and ex-President of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, several persons in the Bengali film industry and other highly influential politicians and individuals.”

The Court further observed that several high ranking officials of the State Government involved in the scam are behind the bars at present and the investigating agencies are proceeding to identify the others involved in the crime and the investigation has proceeded to a fair extent and at this stage it will be highly improper to allow some other investigating agency to conclude the investigation.

The Court opined:

“The Court ought to ensure that the investigation is conducted diligently, with utmost importance and in a time bound manner. Handing over or permitting a separate agency to investigate subsequent offences detected in the course of investigation will inevitably result in delay of the process and in turn will aid the persons involved in the crime to remove/ destroy/ tamper evidences, influence/terrorise witnesses and so on and so forth.”

It was further noted by the Court that the scam in the municipalities is not an independent offence but is a part of the larger offence involving more or less the same persons, similar nature of crime, similar proceeds of crime, similar victims that is the common people who are the unemployed youth of the society.

The Court remarked:

“It is a branch of the main tree of crime-recruitment scam. The two offences may have occurred in two different sets of institutions but the other factors of the offence remain the same. There may be several similar such branches and all are required to be investigated to get a complete picture of the crime that has been committed.”

The Court further noted that the grounds for review as available under Order 47 Rule 1 CPC are not satisfied in the instant petition.

Thus, the Court dismissed the review petition.

Case Title: State of West Bengal v. Soumen Nandy & Ors.

Coram: Justice Amrita Sinha

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