TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2022 (10) TMI 1196
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....alani, Sonia Mathur, Sr. Advs., Kabir Shankar B., Amit Kumar Mishra, Advs., Surjendu Sankar Das, AOR, Ravi Sharma, Annie Mittal, Ajay Awasthi, Mugdha Pande, Wedo Khalo, Anjani Kumar Rai, Abhijeet, Simarjeet Singh Saluja, Pratiksha Mishra, Nikhil Chandra Jaiswal, Divik Mathur, Advs., Vikas Singh, Sr. Adv., Ravinder Singh, Kapish Seth, Raveesha Gupta, Mantika Haryani, Deeksha Agrawal, Advs., Astha Sharma and Shalini Kaul, AORs ORDER 1. The present set of petitions except SLP(C) Nos. 17649-17650/2022 arises out of a judgment of a Division Bench of the High Court at Calcutta delivered on 2nd September 2022, sustaining, in substance a set of orders passed by a Single Judge directing investigation by the CBI into the allegations of irregularities in the recruitment process of Assistant Primary Teachers. Such recruitment took place through the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) examination 2014 which was held in the year 2015. A slew of other directions has also been issued by the Single Judge and we shall refer to them to the extent necessary later in this order. Altogether 23 lakh candidates participated in the selection process for filling up approximately 43,000 vacancies and about....
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....ds: (i) Investigation by Central Bureau of Investigation Direction has been issued by the Single Judge on CBI to start investigation by registering a case against the Board and start interrogating the President of the Board of primary education, Dr. Manik Bhattacharya as also the Secretary of the said Board. Said Manik Bhattacharya is the Petitioner of SLP(C) Nos. 16325-16326 of 2022 and SLP(C) Nos. 17649-17650 of 2022. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has also been directed to be constituted by the CBI for investigation. The SIT constitutes of senior officers from the CBI. (ii) Invalidation of appointment of 269 candidates The Single Judge has also, by the order passed on 13th June 2022, invalidated appointment given to 269 candidates (these candidates were not parties in either of the two writ petitions). 58 of these candidates have approached us with SLP (C) No. 17412 of 2022. The background in which this order was passed is that after publication of the regular panel of successful candidates, a second or additional panel was also published. In this panel, the 269 candidates were found to be successful. The stand of the Board on this c....
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....n the Orders impugned of Hon'ble Single Bench shall be treated to be Obiter at this stage. However, at the same time, this Court does not interfere with the Order of the Hon'ble Singe Bench removing MB from his official position, in view of the visible proximity of MB to the evidence so far before the Court and also directed to be marshalled in the forensic investigation. E. The 269 terminated candidates cannot severally or jointly claim at this stage a prior right to be heard considering the prima facie materials which point to a fraudulent exercise connected to their appointments and, without also completely eliminating their several or joint complicit roles, if any, in abetting the fraud. (quoted verbatim from the paperbook) 6. Special leave petitions have been filed by, apart from Dr. Manik Bhattacharya, the State of West Bengal SLP (C) Nos. 17208-17209 of 2022, West Bengal Board of Primary Education SLP (C) No. 17044-17045, SLP (C) No. 17137 of 2022 and SLP (C) No. 17756 of 2022. The Main case, so far as Dr. Manik Bhattacharya is concerned, is that his removal could not be directed by the Board as the statutory provisions Under Section 9 of the Primary E....
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....was given to the State Government and no opportunity was offered to them, it is difficult to see how an ex parte order could be made on such an assumption. When we say this, we do not wish to be understood to say that in no case an ex parte order can be made by the Court. If the facts stated in the letter or the writ petition are credible and there is such urgency that the ends of justice might be defeated by not making an ex parte order or giving of notice without ex parte order might lead to aggravation of oppression or exploitation or removal or elimination of evidence, the Court would certainly be justified in making an ex parte order. But here there were no such circumstances at all and the Court could have very well issued notice to the Respondents and tried to find out whether there was any necessity for directing the appointment of DIG, CBI to act as a Special Officer and requiring the police authorities of the State to extend all possible help as may be required by him. We are of the view that Borooah, J., should have issued notice to the State Government, afforded a reasonable opportunity to it and its officers who were already in seisin of the investigation to make a rep....
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....General has appeared on behalf of the CBI and his submission is that his clients are in the process of uncovering a recruitment scam of extraordinary dimension and the investigation at this stage prima-facie reveals exchange of monetary considerations for giving appointments. He has argued that investigation ought to be allowed to continue under these circumstances. The Learned Senior Counsel appearing for the writ Petitioners/Respondents in effect echoes the submission of the CBI to sustain their main plea that the investigation ought to go on. Further argument of the Respondents/writ Petitioners is that having regard to the nature of the allegations and the materials which have surfaced during hearing of the case investigation ought not to be scuttled at this stage. It has been emphasised that the writ Petitioners represent all the genuine candidates and all they want is recruitment in a fair and transparent manner. 11. In our opinion, under normal circumstances, it would not be appropriate to straightaway direct CBI investigation in a recruitment related controversy unless, of course the allegations are so outrageous and the perpetrators of the alleged offences are so powerfu....
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....d 228 and 239 and 240 Code of Criminal Procedure. The Appellant is not an Accused and, therefore, it was not entitled for any notice from the High Court before passing of the impugned order. We are concerned with the question as to whether the High Court could have passed a judicial order directing investigation against the Appellant and its activities without providing an opportunity of being heard to it. The case on hand is a case where the criminal law is directed to be set in motion on the basis of the allegations made in anonymous petition filed in the High Court. No judicial order can ever be passed by any court without providing a reasonable opportunity of being heard to the person likely to be affected by such order and particularly when such order results in drastic consequences of affecting one's own reputation. In our view, the impugned order of the High Court directing enquiry and investigation into allegations in respect of which not even any complaint/information has been lodged with the police is violative of principles of natural justice. 52. It is unnecessary to go into the question as to whether the Divine Retreat Centre is not a "person" contemplated....
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....ngly hold that the present incumbent to the post of President, West Bengal Board of Primary Education shall continue to remain in the said post till final outcome of the writ petition before the Single Judge in which the directions of the said Petitioner's removal was passed. Dr. Manik Bhattacharya shall be entitled to file affidavits to the writ petitions as also any additional affidavit taken out in connection with the said writ petitions which may contain allegations against him. The Single Judge shall take decision on this aspect as also on other points which may be urged in the pending writ petitions. Till then, the present incumbent to the post of President, West Bengal Board of Primary Education shall continue to discharge his duties in the said post and Dr. Manik Bhattacharya's position shall be dependent upon the outcome of the pending writ petition. 16. We accordingly direct: (a). The CBI under the SIT shall continue their investigation as directed by the Single Judge and file a comprehensive report before this Court within a period of four weeks as regards progress of the investigation. (b) (i). The order passed directing cancellation of 269 ....