Ilegal appointment in assembly fit case to be handed over to CBI: HC

Ranchi: The Jharkhand high court on Monday observed that the case on illegal appointments in the state assembly is fit to be handed over to the CBI for further investigations. A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad and Justice A K Rai made the observation while hearing a PIL on the issue.
In his PIL, Shiv Shankar Sharma said the appointments in the assembly have been made through backdoor corrupt means.Earlier, a panel led by retired Jharkhand high court judge, Justice Vikramaditya Prasad, had pointed out certain irregularities in the appointment procedure. Thereafter, another report was made on the same issue by a commission headed by Justice (retired) S J Mukhopadhyay.
In 2018, the then governor directed the speaker of the assembly to take appropriate action based on the report submitted by the commission of Justice SJ Mukhopadhyay.
However, no action was taken in the matter till 2021 after which the matter was put before the scanner of the high court.
Arguing on behalf of the petitioner, advocate Rajeev Kumar said there has been gross regularities which are clear in the reports submitted by the two judicial commissions.
Sharma has also mentioned in his petition that despite the reports of the commissions and the notification of the governor to take action against illegal appointments, no action has been taken by the assembly, so far. Those who have been appointed by illegal means will soon superannuate without any action being taken against them, he rued.