Bengal school job case: Calcutta HC division bench refuses to intervene against single-judge bench's order on Abhishek Banerjee

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday refused to intervene in the earlier order by the single- judge bench on September 29 in the multi-crore cash for school job case in West Bengal.

A single-judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha had directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to ensure that the probe in the school job case involving Trinamool Congress’s national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee is not affected in any way.

A division bench of Justices Soumen Sen and Uday Kumar also refused to put any stay on any summon from the central agency to Banerjee for questioning in this connection. However, it gave a suggestion to ED on whether it can summon him only if their investigating officials are not satisfied with the documents related to his property and assets submitted to the agency.

On Tuesday, Banerjee’s counsel had approached the division bench claiming that the case in which Justice Sinha gave the direction to the central agency is not linked to his client and hence, that order directly violates his rights and interests.

Counsel has also complained of judicial influencing of the investigation process as the judge concerned had directed the central agency to act against his client as well as his family members. Counsel has also pointed out that the judge concerned had even asked action against the central agency sleuths if the latter did not act accordingly and thus creating an air of fear in the matter.

The division bench, however, also refused to accept the petitioner’s argument of judicial influencing of the investigation process by Justice Sinha’s bench.

"If she had felt that there was smoke somewhere, she had sought documents to evaluable whether the smoke was still there or it had evaporated. What can the court do if it notices any lapse in the investigation process. The court can always seek documents. What is the problem with submitting those documents to the court?" Justice Sen questioned.

On Wednesday, Justice Sen also expressed ire over the slow pace of investigation by ED in the school job case. "It has been almost 19 months that the investigation process is on. This is a clear example of utter unprofessionalism," he observed.

On Wednesday, ED issued a fresh notice to Abhishek Banerjee asking him to be present at the agency’s Salt Lake office on October 9. His wife Rujira Narula Banerjee too has been summoned at the same office next week.