The Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant any urgent relief to Indian National Lok Dal leader Ajay Chautala, who is currently serving a 10-year jail term for his involvement in the teachers' recruitment scam.
A Bench led by Justice F.M.I. Kalifulla, however, permitted him to apply for parole on medical grounds, but refused to grant him interim bail or suspend his sentence.
The Bench initially declined to entertain his appeal against a Delhi High Court ruling upholding his conviction. But persuasive submissions made by Mr. Chautala’s counsel and senior advocate Gopal Subramanium saw the court relent and modify that it would not entertain the plea “at this stage”.
Mr. Chautala can now return to the Supreme Court in July after the summer vacations.
“Neither notice has been issued on the appeals of Chautala and others, nor the petitions have been dismissed outrightly,” the court observed in the order.
The High Court had in March upheld the 10-year jail term for Mr. Chautala, his father and former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala and four others for their role in the scam. The High Court said their conduct showed “flagrant disregard” towards society and system.
“Such scams not only result in dissemination of poor quality education to millions of children, who are bound to suffer, but also unfairly deprive the competent participants in such selection processes an opportunity to gain public employment and meaningfully serve the country. Public confidence is bound to get shaken…,” Justice Sidharth Mridul had observed in a 400-page order.
Fifty-five people had been convicted and sentenced under various sections of the IPC and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act by a special CBI court in January 2013 for illegally recruiting 3,206 junior basic trained teachers in Haryana in 1999-2000.
