Bengal teachers' recruitment case: Calcutta HC raises questions on investigation progress

Kolkata, Sep 2 (IANS) The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday raised questions about the progress of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the primary teachers' recruitment corruption case in state-run schools, and asked the CBI when its probe into the case will be completed.

While hearing the case, a division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Ritabrata Kumar Mitra observed that none of them knows when the investigation into the corruption in the recruitment of primary teachers will be completed.

The high court also said that until the investigation is completed, it is not possible to know who got the job through corruption and who is involved in that corruption.

The High Court has been hearing the case of the cancellation of 32,000 teaching jobs in state-run primary schools. Earlier, arguments were made on behalf of the state government and the West Bengal Primary Education Board.

Lawyer for the petitioners, Soumya Majumdar, argued before the court that the primary board did not publish the merit list correctly. A lot of complications were created in publishing the merit list; therefore, if there is any error, it cannot be easily detected.

Justice Chakraborty countered him by saying what procedure should have been followed for publishing the merit list. Was it supposed to be published according to any specific rule? asked the court. The lawyer said that there is no rule for this. However, in such jobs, a district-wise transparent list of trained, untrained, caste, subject and number-based lists should have been published.

The court observed that the cancellation of the jobs of so many teachers will have an impact on their families. They have already served for five years. The case has been going on for almost two years. The court wanted to know what could be an alternative to this and posted the matter for hearing next on September 11.

--IANS

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