Calcutta HC upholds previous order questioning qualification of Bengal CM's sister-in-law's selection in Kolkata's college working committee

Kolkata, Sep 19 (IANS) A division bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Friday, had uphold a previous order of a single-judge bench of the same court stressing on the requirement for a detailed hearing on the qualification and eligibility of Kajori Banerjee, the sister-in-law of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, as the President of the working committee of a top girl's college in Kolkata.

On September 17, Calcutta High Court's single-judge bench of Justice Bivas Pattanayak had questioned how, despite not being an educationist herself, Kajori Banerjee, also a Councillor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), could be selected in the working committee of Kolkata's renowned Rani Birla Girls' College, and that too as its President.

As per law, the president of a college's management committee should be a "person who is associated with education", Justice Pattanayak called for a detailed hearing in the matter since in this particular case, the President of the college working committee was just a Councillor and there was no evidence that she was associated with academics.

"Therefore, it needs to be seen whether her (Kajori Banerjee's) appointment was legal or not," the judge said earlier this week.

Thereafter, Kajori Banerjee approached Calcutta High Court's division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Reetobrata Kumar Mitra, challenging the single-judge bench order.

However, on Friday, the division bench rejected Kajori Banerjee's petition and upheld the earlier order of the single-judge bench of Justice Pattanayak in the matter.

The division bench also observed that the matter will continue to be heard at the single-judge bench, with the next hearing in the matter being eight weeks from now, as decided earlier.

On September 17, Justice Pattanayak's bench also put an interim stay on the show-cause notice and suspension order issued to the college Principal Srabanti Bhattacharya by Kajor Banerjee last month.

The interim stay will prevail for another eight weeks, and the next hearing in the matter will be after six weeks.

The show-cause notice and the suspension order were issued on August 29.

The college principal challenged the show-cause notice and the suspension order before the single-judge bench of Justice Biswajit Basu.

But during the hearing, the state government counsel requested Justice Basu to recuse himself from hearing in the matter.

Justice Basu expressed anguish over such an approach by the state government counsel.

However, finally, he recused himself from hearing the matter.

The matter was thereafter referred to the bench of Justice Pattanayak.

The matter came up for hearing on September 17, and at the end of the hearing on that day, Justice Pattanayak too ordered an interim stay on both the show-cause notice and the suspension order.

--IANS

src/khz