New Delhi: The Supreme Court has refused to entertain an appeal of the West Bengal government challenging the June 15 order of the Calcutta High Court asking the CBI and ED to probe alleged irregularities in the recruitment of staff in various municipal bodies.
A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra, while junking the appeal of the state government, said prima facie the alleged municipality recruitment scam appeared to be linked to the teachers recruitment case which is being probed by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate.
The bench also did not agree with the contention of senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, appearing for the state government, that let it be said that the order of the Calcutta High Court asking the CBI and ED to probe this case also will not be treated as a “precedent”.
The senior lawyer referred to several judgements to highlight the point that the state government’s power to deal with such cases will be diminished if probe by central agencies is allowed in this manner. Sibal said the high court had erred in its decision of transferring the matter to the central agencies as there was no material to prove that the state could not investigate the alleged scam.
He said the ED had no jurisdiction and it was just "targeting" officers at this point. "Which other states is this happening in? There is no jurisdiction of ED here,” Sibal said. The bench, however, rejected the contention of the state government, saying there was a prima facie link between the two cases.