West Bengal cash-for-school-job scam cases to be heard by a special HC bench now

Today, on Friday, November 17, the Calcutta High Court (HC) announced the formation of a special bench for hearing all cases relating to the alleged multi-crore cash-for-school-job scam in West Bengal. The move is in line with the Supreme Court's direction.

The announcement was made after a fresh appeal at the Calcutta High Court's division bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya seeking quick formation of the special bench to hear the cases on Thursday, November 16. Chief Justice Sivagnanam assured the petitioner of quick action, and as promised, the announcement was made today at noon, as per a report by IANS.

Henceforth, a special bench of Justices Debangsu Basak and Shabbar Rashidi will hear all the cases in the matter. Earlier, the Calcutta High Court had directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to complete the investigation of the case by December 31.

On November 10, the Supreme Court's division bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi returned to the Calcutta High Court all the cases pertaining to the alleged cash-for-school-job scam. Besides directing the formation of a special bench for hearing the related cases, the apex court also directed the winding up of all cases relating to the matter within the next six months.

The top court also directed the central agencies to wind up their investigation into the matter within the next couple of months. Political and legal observers feel that following the order of the Supreme Court fixing the deadline, the central agencies are now under pressure to act fast on the matter, as per IANS.