Kolkata, April 4 : Calcutta High Court justice Harish Tandon on Monday recused himself from a division bench from hearing a batch of petitions in the alleged irregularities in the appointment (recruitment) in the Group C, D ( non-teaching staff) and Class IX and X teachers in the government sponsored schools in West Bengal. Justice Tandon recused himself from the division bench citing personal ground, the HC sources said. They said the justice recused himself from hearing from some ten cases in the alleged irregularities in the appointment of the Secondary and Higher Secondary schools under the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) on the purported recommendation by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC). The division bench was to hear on the subject on Monday. On Friday last, another division bench consisting of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee had stayed a single Judge’s order (Justice Abhijit Ganguly) for a probe by the CBI into the alleged recruitment scam. The division bench had granted such an interim relief until the Regular Bench comprising Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Rabindranath Samanta to hear the matter on April 4. A report said that the government in 2016 had planned to appoint some 13,000 non-teaching staff in different schools and the WBSSC had conducted tests and subsequent interviews in phases and a panel was constituted. The term of the panel ended in 2019. However, subsequently, there were widespread allegations and petitions that the Commission had made alleged irregularity in the recruitments of about 500 even after the expiry of the panel. Justice Ganguly last week had complained with the chief justice of Supreme court and chief justice of Calcutta High court, saying that his order for the CBI probe in the alleged irregularities in the appointment of teachers and non-teaching staff in the government schools faced hurdles due to rejection of his order by the division bench. PC SJC BM