Teachers’ recruitment: HC sets aside CBI probe order

LUCKNOW : The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has set aside the single-judge order for CBI investigation into the recruitment of 68,500 assistant teachers in the state. The division bench, comprising chief justice Govind Mathur and justice Manish Mathur passed the recent judgment allowing a special appeal filed by Uttar Pradesh government. The order issued by a single judge on November 1, 2018 was challenged in the appeal.

LUCKNOW: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has set aside the single-judge order for CBI investigation into the recruitment of 68,500 assistant teachers in the state.

The division bench, comprising chief justice Govind Mathur and justice Manish Mathur passed the recent judgment allowing a special appeal filed by Uttar Pradesh government. The order issued by a single judge on November 1, 2018 was challenged in the appeal.

The single-judge bench had ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director for a probe into the selection process initiated for the recruitment of assistant teachers in primary schools of the state against 68,500 posts in 2018. It further directed that necessary action be taken against officers found involved in corrupt practices by a competent authority.

The directive was challenged on the ground that since no justifiable reason was available to lodge a criminal case, CBI couldn’t be asked to probe the case. In case there were any circumstances to initiate criminal proceedings, a local agency should investigate the same, it added.

Advocate General ( AG ) Raghvendra Singh argued on behalf of the state government that no adequate circumstance existed to get the matter investigated by the CBI.

Justifying the earlier order for CBI probe, the counsel appearing for petitioners-respondents submitted that the single judge bench had reached a definite conclusion that the state government was avoiding investigation and the entire selection process involved “corrupt practices”.

The court further said, “Going through the order passed by the single bench, we failed to notice any iota of doubt about the objectivity of the state functionaries or its agencies. The order to get the matter investigated by the CBI is based on the assumption that the local agency shall be influenced by the state officers, but no material is available on record for such an assumption.”

“We do not find that high officials of the state authorities are involved, who may influence the investigation, if done by local agencies...No extraordinary circumstances exist that may warrant investigation by the CBI”, the court said.

The court further said that the directive given by the singlejudge bench to get the investigation conducted by the CBI was not sustainable and allowed the appeal accordingly.