Latest news with #RajarshiBharadwaj
Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
High court-appointed Rose Valley panel under HC scanner
Kolkata: The Rose Valley Assets Disposal Committee, established under a retired high court judge in 2015 to refund investors by selling the group's assets, has come under the Calcutta High Court's scrutiny. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now A division bench of Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj and Justice Apurba Sinha Ray hinted at the need for an inquiry into the committee's functioning. Retired HC Judge Dilip Kumar Seth is the chairman of the panel, which includes an ED member. Following the division bench's directive, the committee submitted a report to it. The court took exception to "misses and shortcomings" and noted there was no audit of the panel's functioning since it was formed in 2015. The bench raised its eyebrows when the report claimed office expenses incurred for running the committee over the past 10 years were Rs 10 lakh only. Answering the court's query on who bore the committee chairman's salary expenses, a counsel said it was Chocolate Group. The division bench had earlier questioned the committee on why it allowed Chocolate Group to run hotels and other immovable assets, which earlier belonged to the Rose Valley Group, when the HC had set up the panel to auction the assets and refund investors. "Why has the committee included a non-existent group, Chocolate Group? An inquiry into the committee's workings is needed," Justice Bharadwaj said. The bench expressed displeasure over the committee's workings with another Ponzi firm, MPS Group.
Time of India
5 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
HC directs regularisation of 15 Group D civic staffers
Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Monday held that irregular appointments made against vacant posts can be regularised on the basis of long and uninterrupted service. As such, the HC directed immediate regularisation of 15 Group D staff members of Raiganj Municipality who rendered decades of "uninterrupted service" without formal regularisation. The core issue before Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj was whether these staff members, who had served as Group D employees for a long time on vacant and necessary posts but without regularisation, are entitled to be absorbed into regular service. Their appointments had been made prior to Sept 2006, before the West Bengal Municipal Employees' (Recruitment Rules), 2005 had come into force. At the time, there were no codified service rules for appointments to municipal posts. You Can Also Check: Kolkata AQI | Weather in Kolkata | Bank Holidays in Kolkata | Public Holidays in Kolkata The expectations of these employees of being absorbed into regular service had been raised because the municipality, between 2017 and 2019, made requests for their regularisation to the local bodies director. The director advised initiation of the process in 2018. A 2019 recruitment notice seeking to fill the posts held by petitioners was stayed by the Calcutta HC in 2020. Justice Bharadwaj held: "The petitioners' appointments were not illegal, but at most procedurally irregular, having been made at a time when no formal recruitment framework was in place. Their long and uninterrupted service spanning nearly two decades in performing essential municipal functions, combined with repeated recommendations and affirmations by competent municipal authorities, clearly establishes a case of legitimate expectation for regularisation. " "The doctrine of equality, read in conjunction with the judicially recognised distinction between 'illegal' and 'irregular' appointments, fully supports the regularisation of petitioners in the present factual context, as has already been directed in similarly placed cases," the HC held.
