Bandyopadhyay was serving as the Chief Secretary when the Centre in May 2021 decided to cut short his tenure with the West Bengal government, and asked him to report to New Delhi, after which he superannuated on May 31.
Subsequently, an inquiry was initiated against him by the Centre. Bandyopadhyay had then moved the CAT’s Kolkata bench challenging the decision to start the inquiry. This led to the transfer petition by the Centre before the principal bench of CAT.
On October 22, the principal bench passed an order allowing the transfer petition and directed the registry office to intimate the order to the Kolkata bench of the CAT.
Bandyopadhyay moved the Calcutta High Court contending that the transfer order was in violation of Rule 6(2) of the Central Administrative Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 1987.
The Calcutta High Court had then passed a scathing order on October 29, 2021 berating the the principal bench of CAT for what it perceived as favouring the Central government in its attempt to transfer the case filed by Bandyopadhyay from Kolkata Bench to New Delhi.
The High Court Bench of Justices Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya and Rabindranath Samanta said that the modus operandi of Central government to get the case transferred to the principal bench of CAT at New Delhi reeked of mala fides.
It was unfortunate that the principal bench nurtured such efforts by allowing Centre’s transfer petition, the High Court had said.
The Centre had appealed to the Supreme Court against the same and got a favourable verdict.
The apex court had, however, granted liberty to Bandyopadhyay to move the jurisdictional High Court prompting the former Chief Secretary to file the current plea before the Delhi High Court.
Source: Barandbench
