SC stays removal of Manik Bhattacharya as WBBPE president

Kolkata, Oct 18 The Supreme Court on Tuesday put an interim stay on an earlier order of the Calcutta High Court on the removal of Trinamool Congress legislator, Manik Bhattacharya as the president of West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE).

However, the division bench of the apex court did not pass any order on the reappointment of Bhattacharya for that chair considering that the state government has already replaced him after the Calcutta High Court order.

While putting an interim stay on the earlier order of the Calcutta High Court on this count, the Supreme Court's division bench of Justice Anuruddha Bose and Justice Vikram Nath said that the apex court cannot pass any order regarding his reappointment.

At the same time, the division bench also put an interim stay on the termination of 269 primary teachers as per the order by Calcutta High Court earlier on grounds that they secured the job illegally against payment of money. The apex court on Tuesday gave these 269 primary teachers an opportunity to get their versions heard by the court in the matter.

Explaining the legal side of the order, CPI-M Rajya Sabha member and senior advocate of Calcutta High Court, Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya said since the apex court has not passed any order on his reappointment despite the interim stay there is no chance for him to reassume the chair at this moment. "As regards to termination of services of 269 primary teachers, they have a chance to present their case in the court," he said.

At the same time the division bench of the Supreme Court refused to stay the earlier order of the Calcutta High court on Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probing the primary teacher's recruitment scam in the state.

Stating that the CBI can continue with its probe in the matter, the division bench ordered the central investigative agency to submit a progress report on this count after four weeks. However, the apex court barred the CBI from taking any cohesive action against Manik Bhattacharya in the matter till that time.

The apex court reserved its judgement on the arrest of Manik Bhattacharya by another central agency Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the same matter. Currently, the former WBBPE president is in ED custody.