High Court: Accused in the school job scam will face trial; approval must be granted by the 23rd

On Tuesday, the Kolkata High Court directed the Chief Secretary of West Bengal to give sanction for the prosecution of the accused arrested in the school job scam case of the state. He said that a decision should be taken by April 23, CBI is investigating the scam, but it has not got approval for one and a half years.

Expressing displeasure over the non-decision on the case pending for one and a half years on the West Bengal school job scam, the High Court said that the Chief Secretary should give his approval on the prosecution of the accused in this scam by April 23 under all circumstances. Justice Jaimalya Bagchi said that the accused have been in custody for more than a year. During this, the Chief Secretary presented the report before the court. In which he said that CBI has given incomplete documents. On this, CBI lawyer Deputy Solicitor General Dheeraj Trivedi said that every document related to this case was handed over to the authority. After seeing the report of the Secretary, Justice Gaurang Kanth said that we are surprised that even a civil servant is not performing his duties. He said that this is the highest post in the state.

The West Bengal School Service Commission secretary Ashok Shah, the former chairman of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, Kalyanmoy Ganguly, the former education minister Partha Chatterjee, and the former chairman of the SSC, Subir Bhattacharya, have been detained for over a year in connection with the school employment scam. The High Court is considering his request for bail. Nonetheless, the prosecution of former minister Partha Chatterjee has been approved by the West Bengal governor. The approval for the trial of the other arrested accused has not yet been given. Simultaneously, the prosecution of ruling party MLA Jeevan Krishna Saha has been approved by the Speaker of the West Bengal Assembly.

It has also been said in the court that the Chief Secretary is not deciding the CBI applications because of the accused in this case. Is the influence of eminent people stopping the approval? Why has no action been taken yet despite such deep corruption in the state?

The court asked the authority that sanctioned the investigation in the case to directly approach CBI officials for people and documents related to the crime.