Kolkata:

The Calcutta High Court will on Monday pronounce its judgement on petitions and appeals relating to alleged irregularities in the selection of candidates in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided secondary and higher secondary schools through a 2016 recruitment process.

The CBI, which investigated the case on an order of the high court, arrested former state education minister Partha Chatterjee and some functionaries who held positions in the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) during the occurrence of the alleged scam.

A division bench comprising justices Debangsu Basak and Md Shabbar Rashidi will on Monday pronounce judgement on a large number of petitions and appeals, which were heard together, in connection with the school jobs recruitment process, an official at the high court said.

The division bench, formed by the Chief Justice of the high court on a direction of the Supreme Court, extensively heard numerous petitions and appeals relating to the selection of candidates for appointment by the SSC in the categories of teachers of classes 9, 10, 11 and 12 and group-C and D staffers through State Level Selection Test-2016 (SLST).

Hearing in the matters was concluded on March 20 and judgement was reserved by the division bench.

On writ petitions by some candidates who appeared in SLST-2016, but did not get jobs, a single bench presided by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had ordered CBI investigation into alleged irregularities in the recruitment process.

The high court had also ordered the termination of a number of jobs of teaching and non-teaching staffers after finding irregularities.

Disposing of petitions before it in connection with the matters, the Supreme Court had on November 9, 2023, requested the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to constitute a division bench to hear all the petitions and appeals pertaining to the recruitment process through SLST-2016 for early adjudication.

The top court had in its order accorded protection to the appointments, which were terminated by the high court, for a period of six months to enable the division bench to adjudicate on the disputes.

The CBI had completed the investigation into the matters and submitted a report before the high court in accordance with the direction of the Supreme Court to do so within two months from the date of its order.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kolkata:

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee to appear before its officers on October 9 in connection with their probe into the alleged irregularities in the West Bengal teacher recruitment scam, a senior official said today.

The probe agency also summoned Abhishek Banerjee’s wife Rujira for questioning on October 11, the official added.

“Our officers will question Banerjee on October 9 and his wife on October 11 in connection with the school jobs scam. Both have been asked to come to our office at the CGO Complex here,” the officer told Press Trust of India over the phone.

Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate had summoned the TMC leader’s parents Amit and Lata Banerjee to appear before its officers this week in the same case.

The Diamond Harbour MP, who was asked by Enforcement Directorate to appear before it on October 3, had skipped the summons and participated in the party’s protest rally in New Delhi against the BJP-led central government demanding immediate release of central funds allegedly owed to the state.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)