Bengal school recruitment case: SC refuses to interfere with order to probe Abhishek Banerjee

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere with an order by the Calcutta High Court allowing the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate to investigate the alleged role of Trinamool Congress national general secretary and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee in the multi-crore recruitment scam in West Bengal schools.

"The order by the High Court is fair and balanced," a vacation bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and P S Narasimha said.

The court, however, stayed Rs 25 lakh cost imposed upon him.

It also issued notice to the CBI and ED in the matter.

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After hearing senior advocates A M Singhvi and Kapil Sibal for Banerjee and the Bengal government respectively, the bench said it would not interfere with the order for now but consider the issue after vacations.

The Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha on May 18 concurred with a previous order by the bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, allowing the central agencies to question Banerjee in connection with the case.

Justice Sinha also imposed Rs 25 lakh cost on Banerjee.

Justice Sinha was assigned the case after the Supreme Court asked the HC's chief justice to reassign the case to a separate bench as Banerjee objected to TV interview of Gangopadhyay in the matter.