School Job Scam: HC Requests Bengal to Determine Whether to Grant Sanction to Bring Charges Against Accused by May 2
The West Bengal chief secretary was given a deadline of May 2 by the Calcutta High Court to determine whether to allow the prosecution of former public officers who were detained by the CBI in the 2016 school jobs case, which resulted in the cancellation of over 25,500 appointments the previous day.
A division bench said that the court would be forced to take necessary action against the chief secretary should he disobey this order.
On Monday, a different division bench of the high court declared the State Level Selection Test (SLST) 2016 recruitment procedure by the School Service Commission to be invalid and canceled 25,753 appointments of teaching and non-teaching personnel in West Bengal government-sponsored and -aided schools. Noting that the CBI’s request for permission to prosecute these individuals has been waiting since 2022, a division bench led by Justice Joymalya Bagchi instructed the chief secretary to make a decision by May 2 about permission to prosecute the accused individuals who were detained two years before.
The court maintained that the granting of sanction is a prelude to the start of the trial, but it also said that it is legally required for the sanctioning body to make a judgment on the case as soon as possible. The division bench, which also included Justice Gaurang Kanth, said that the decision-maker “should not be overawed or influenced by the position, authority or power of the accused persons and take an independent decision on the matter.”
During the accused’s bail petition hearing, which included Partha Chatterjee, a former state minister of education, the judge issued the ruling. Their attorneys pleaded that they be freed on bond because of the delay, stating that they had been in detention for over two years but the case could not proceed since some of the former public officers could not be prosecuted.
During the last hearing on the case, the CBI had informed the court that Chatterjee’s prosecution had been approved by the West Bengal governor. The division bench was considering the bail requests of Chatterjee, Ashok Saha, the former chairman of the SSC, Subires Bhattacharyya, and Santi Prasad Sinha, the former chairman of the SSC advisory committee. All of these individuals have been detained for approximately two years due to their involvement in the case.
The accused individuals’ significance was questioned by the court, raising doubts about their ability to delay the sanctioning procedure for a full year and a half. On April 9, the bench also voiced its dissatisfaction with the sanction’s delay and instructed the chief secretary to make a judgment by April 23.
In its ruling on the school employment concerns on Monday, a division bench led by Justice Debasgsu Basak criticized the delay in approving the accused parties’ prosecution. Since a coordination court had given instructions for the quick resolution of the sanction application, the bench had said that it was not providing any directions to the chief secretary in this respect.
