A division bench of the Calcutta High Court reserved its judgement on the appeals filed by the West Bengal government and others challenging orders of a single bench that directed a CBI investigation in the WB school teachers' recruitment scam. There were allegations of irregularities in the recruitment of teachers in state-sponsored and aided primary schools earlier this year.
The appeals were heard on July 19, Tuesday. They were filed by the state government, the Primary School Education Board and others involved in the matter. The appeals were moved against the earlier order of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay for instituting a CBI probe into the appointments of 269 candidates, who got the benefit of an additional one mark, as per a report by PTI.
A division bench comprising justices Subrata Talukdar and Lapita Banerji reserved judgement in the appeals following the conclusion of arguments by the appellants and the petitioner. Earlier, Justice Gangopadhyay had also terminated the service of a primary school teacher and asked her to return her salary.
During the pleadings, the West Bengal Primary School Education Board admitted before the division bench that discrimination was indeed made, as all of the candidates who appeared for the Teachers' Eligibility Test (TET) in 2014 were not granted an additional mark for a wrong question, while also asserting that there was no criminality involved in it, as per PTI.
There were more than 20 lakh candidates who appeared for the TET exam in 2014 and several of them had petitioned in the High Court about the alleged discrepancy. One of the petitioners, an aggrieved candidate, has submitted that a proper investigation is required to reveal the reasons and criteria for granting the extra one mark. A CBI inquiry in the matter is on.
