Calcutta high court orders CBI probe in recruitment of Bengal primary teachers

The Calcutta high court has told the West Bengal government to cancel the appointment of 269 primary school teachers over allegations of irregularities

The Calcutta high court on Monday ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file a case regarding alleged irregularities in the recruitment of 269 primary school teachers in West Bengal in 2017, lawyers aware of the development said.

Following the Calcutta high court order, CBI on Monday questioned former state primary education board president Manik Bhattacharya and board secretary, Ratna Bagchi Chakraborty, till 9pm on Monday

The court also told the government to cancel the appointment of the 269 teachers.

The order was passed by justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay who earlier ordered a CBI probe into the recruitment of high school teachers and staff by the School Service Commission (SSC) and also cancelled the appointment of the daughter of deputy education minister Paresh Chandra Adhikary as a teacher.

Former education minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) secretary-general Partha Chatterjee and Adhikary have been questioned by the CBI over the recruitment of high school teachers amid allegations that unfit people got jobs after paying bribes.

The appointments were made during Chatterjee’s tenure as education minister.

On Monday, justice Gangopadhyay told CBI to probe the alleged irregularities in the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) conducted in 2017.

Appearing for one of the petitioners, senior lawyer Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya told the court that many of those who failed in the TET were appointed in 2017.

The judge ordered the former president of the primary education board, Manik Bhattacharya, and the board’s secretary, Ratna Bagchi Chakraborty, to appear before the CBI at 5pm on Monday. They were questioned till 9pm.

Education minister Bratya Basu refused to comment on the case, saying the matter is sub-judice.

He told reporters that the candidates under scanner appeared for TET in 2015 and the results were declared in 2016, suggesting that he was not the education minister at that time. Basu became education minister after the Trinamool Congress (TMC) came to power for the third time in 2021.