Kolkata, March 22 -- The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed issuance of notice upon Chief Secretary B P Gopalika, who has also been asked to submit a report with regards to the timeline proposed by him to take decision on granting of sanction to prosecute public servants in connection with alleged recruitment scam case.

The Division Bench of Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Gaurang Kanth 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 more than a year.

Investigation in these cases is over but prosecution cannot commence due to absence of sanction by the sanctioning authorities, one of whom is Chief Secretary. The ASG on Friday submitted that the Governor had granted sanction to prosecute Partha Chatterjee. However, the Chief Secretary is yet to grant sanction to prosecute other public servants.

Meanwhile, sanction has been granted for the co-accused Jiban Saha, an MLA, by the Speaker of the House. According to submissions in the court, numerous letters have been written to the sanctioning authorities one and from December 2022 but to no avail. The case is with regards to a probe in an alleged scam with regards to appointment to various posts in government and aided schools in the state. It has been alleged that through a conspiracy between influential people, an attempt was made to derail the selection process by tampering the results and appointment of undeserving persons to public posts.

"Allegation of corruption is a serious threat to rule of law and confidence in public administration.While these factors aggravate the gravity of the offence, it is also important for the court to ensure that the petitioners are not subjected to prolonged undertrial detention on the score that the sanctioning authority is dragging its feet over the issue," Justice Bagchi observed. The Court further observed, "Delay in taking a decision is a matter of serious regret."

The matter will be next heard on April 3.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.