A committee headed by retired Judge of Calcutta High Court on Friday submitted a report before the High Court highlighting irregularities in recruitment of Group C staff in schools by the West Bengal School Service Commission. The report was submitted before the Division Bench of Justice Subrata Talukdar Justice Ananda Kumar Mukherjee at the Calcutta High Court. Justice (Retd.) R.K. Bag was asked by the court to look into the allegations of irregularities in recruitment of Group C staff by the Commission.
Arunava Bandyopadhyay, a lawyer appearing on behalf of Justice Bag committee said that investigation has found massive irregularities where 381 candidates were given appointment letters bypassing everything. “Among the 381 candidates, names of 221 had never figured in the recruitment panel, not even in the waiting list.. The recruitment has been beyond rules,” the lawyer said. He added that committee has recommended on how further investigation should be carried out in this case. The investigation report has also raised questions on the legality of a five-member committee appointed by former State Education Minister Partha Chatterjee. Citing irregularities in the recruitment, petitioners had approached the High Court that had asked a committee headed by Justice Bag to complete its investigation in four weeks.
The counsels representing petitioners demanded that civil and criminal proceedings be initiated against the officials of the West Bengal School Service Commission. The petitioners also demanded a probe by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The court will pronounce its order on May 18.
Earlier, the Justice Bag Committee submitted before the High Court a separate report on irregularities on Group D recruitment by the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC). Based on the report, the court had last month directed the CBI to conduct custodial investigation of the WBSSC officials in alleged corruption during recruitment of Group D staff by the Commission.
The allegations of corruption in recruitment by WBSSC have come as an embarrassment to the West Bengal government. Political parties in the Opposition targeted the State government over fresh charges of corruption. During the day, State’s Education Minister Bratya Basu met Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar at Raj Bhavan on issues related to education in the State.
