Directing the chief secretary to take the decision “independently and positively”, the Division Bench of Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Gaurang Kanth observed that “if this is the circumstance in which the prosecuting agency has to work, will it have a level playing field?”

For over a year, state’s former education minister Partha Chatterjee, former secretary of West Bengal School Service Commission Ashok Saha, former president of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education Kalyanmoy Ganguly, and former SSC chairman Subires Bhattacharyya have been in jail in connection with the alleged irregularities in school recruitments.

After going through an affidavit submitted by the chief secretary on an earlier direction of the High Court, the Bench noted that the report was silent on granting prosecution sanction.

“How far the state of West Bengal is a neutral field for trial is something that the prosecuting agency should consider. We are constrained to observe that the chief secretary has failed to apply his mind to the matter and submitted a laconic and incomplete report,” the Division Bench said.

Earlier, the CBI had told the court that the Governor had granted sanction to prosecute former minister Partha Chatterjee. It had submitted that the state’s chief secretary has not yet taken a decision on granting sanctions to prosecute former public servants like Ashok Saha, Subiresh Bhattacharya, and Kalyanmoy Ganguly.