Why No Case Registered Against 1,698 Job Cheats?: Calcutta HC to CBI

The Calcutta high court on Wednesday asked CBI why it has not registered any case against the 1,698 persons who the court ordered were “illegally appointed” in Group-D posts in government schools.

The matter was heard by a single bench of Justice Biswajit Basu.

“If cases can be registered against persons who issued the fake recommendation letters (S.P. Sinha and 14 others), why cases can’t be registered against 1,698 persons who got their jobs on the basis of those fake documents?” Justice Basu asked.

The CBI arrested S.P. Sinha, former chief adviser to the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC), and Ashok Saha, former secretary of the commission, on August 10, last year, in connection with the allegedly illegal appointment of Group C staff for government-aided schools by issuing fake recommendation letters to unsuccessful candidates.

On December 27 the school education department had asked district inspectors of schools to serve a copy of a Calcutta High Court order on the 1,698 candidates who, the courts aid, were “illegally appointed in the post of non-teaching staff” in government-aided schools by the SSC.

On Wednesday, when a lawyer representing the CBI stated that out of the 1,698 candidates, four did not join work, the judge asked: “Then why are cases not being registered against 1,694 persons?”

In its defence, the lawyer told the bench that the agency had a limited workforce.

The judge response by stating that, “The officers who are available should complete the probe with immediate effect.”