'Height of lawlessness': Calcutta HC on Left-era picks

Kolkata: A 14-year-old case involving a sacked Bengal govt staffer seeking reinstatement turned on its head this week when Calcutta HC gave the current govt the freedom to investigate what the judge termed "unexplainable favouritism" towards the petitioner by a former Left Front minister in 2010.

"What can be a greater example of lawlessness?" Justice Rai Chattopadhyay said on Tuesday of petitioner Tithi Adhikary being accommodated in the then education minister's office despite her services being terminated earlier on charges of dereliction of duty. "The minister's order to engage her in his office with remuneration to be disbursed from funds meant for public good amounts to improper exercise of power," the judge said.

Adhikary was originally appointed as a contractual Group C staffer under Sarba Shiksha Mission, Howrah, in 2007. She worked there for three years before being put on notice for allegedly not doing her job of rectifying education data. When authorities decided not to renew her contract, she challenged the decision and was appointed again in former minister Partha De's office.

She worked until 2012 before being dismissed "verbally" by the then OSD to the minister on Aug 21 that year.

Rejecting her plea for reinstatement, Justice Chattopadhyay said the TMC govt "may, exercising its own discretion", initiate proceedings to unearth the truth and fix liability for Adhikary's illegal appointment.

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