A division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday refused to interfere with an order of a single bench that directed former advisor of West Bengal School Service Commission S P Sinha to appear before the CBI in connection with alleged irregularities in recruitment but barred the agency from taking him into custody.

Sinha went to the CBI office at 5.10 pm of Tuesday following the order of the division bench.

Observing that a stay granted to him by another division bench presided by Justice Soumen Sen expired on Monday, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay permitted the Central Bureau of Investigation to hold custodial interrogation of him and directed the officer-in-charge of Survey Park Police station in Kolkata to ensure the presence of Sinha before the agency.

Sinha went to the CBI office at 5.10 pm of Tuesday following the order of the division bench.

Observing that a stay granted to him by another division bench presided by Justice Soumen Sen expired on Monday, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay permitted the Central Bureau of Investigation to hold custodial interrogation of him and directed the officer-in-charge of Survey Park Police station in Kolkata to ensure the presence of Sinha before the agency.

Taking up an appeal by Sinha, the division bench presided by Justice Subrata Talukdar did not interfere with the order of Justice Gangopadhyay that he has to appear before the CBI on Tuesday itself, while directing that the agency will not take him into custody.

Justice Gangopadhyay directed Sinha to appear before the central agency for interrogation by 3 pm of Tuesday ''as the stay order he was enjoying till Monday has not been extended by any court of law''.

The division bench presided by Justice Talukdar directed Sinha to appear before the CBI within the day.

The division bench headed by Justice Sen had on Friday granted a stay on Justice Gangopadhyay's earlier order for Sinha's appearance before the CBI till Monday.

The central agency had on Thursday questioned Sinha on an order of the single bench.

Justice Gangopadhyay on Monday directed four members of a five-man committee constituted by the West Bengal School Education Department in November, 2019 for monitoring pending recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in government-aided schools to appear before the CBI in connection with alleged irregularities in the process in which the court had earlier ordered the central agency to hold an enquiry.

The committee was headed by Sinha and the other four members were S Acharya, PK Bandopadhyay, AK Sarkar and T Panja.

A division bench comprising justices Harish Tandon and Rabindranath Samanta on Monday released all matters it was hearing in an appeal challenging orders of the single bench in relation to alleged irregularities in the appointments.

The single bench of Justice Gangopadhyay had on March 30 questioned an order of the division bench in the appeal challenging his direction for submission of an affidavit of assets by Sinha in a petition alleging irregularities in the appointments.

Thereafter, three division benches of the high court refused to hear the appeal on Monday and another division bench on Tuesday did not agree to hear the matter and returned it to the court of the chief justice. (PTI)