KOLKATA: The Calcutta high court on Tuesday ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to immediately start investigations into alleged irregularities in the recruitment of teachers in West Bengal and told junior school education minister Paresh Chandra Adhikary to appear before the agency at 8pm.
The court directive came on a petition that alleged Adhikary’s daughter Ankita was recruited as a teacher in 2018 though she secured lower marks than the petitioner Babita Sarkar.
“The bench of justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay ordered a CBI probe into the irregularities and directed the agency to question Adhikary by 8pm on Tuesday,” said Firdous Shamim, who appeared for Babita Sarkar told reporters.
The minister, however, failed to appear before CBI at 8pm as he was in north Bengal. He is likely to reach Kolkata on Wednesday.
Shamim said the bench also suggested that Adhikary should step down.
“Lastly I say that we have to reach to a cleaner and better society. As the name of one minister of state is involved in this matter, to cleanse the whole situation of polity, I would expect that the said person Paresh Chandra Adhikary would either step down or would be removed from the post of the minister and the chief minister and the governor of the state would think over the matter. It is made clear that this is not my order or direction, nor any observation for the removal. This is only an expectation of this constitutional court that we are to look for a better tomorrow,” the order stated
Adhikary, Bengal’s minister of state of school education, was not available for comments.
But his party, the Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said it wasn’t for the court to comment on who can remain a minister and who should be dropped.
“What is right is right and what is wrong is wrong. I won’t comment on the court order. All I would like to say is that a court while giving orders shouldn’t overstep its jurisdiction. It shouldn’t say who can remain a minister and who should be removed from the post. This is the prerogative of the chief minister,” Ghosh told reporters.
Petitioner Babita Sarkar earlier told the high court that she secured 77 marks in the recruitment exam and didn’t make the cut but Ankita did, though she scored only 61 marks.
“The exam was held in 2016 and the result was published in May 2017. My rank in the merit list was 20. Ankita’s name was not in the merit list or waiting list. But suddenly during the second counseling, I found that my rank was 21. A closer look revealed that a new name Ankita Adhikary has been included in the list and she was holding the first rank. Since then I ran from pillar to post but didn’t get any response. It was in 2021 that I filed the petition in the high court,” said Sarkar.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) underlined that the politician’s daughter Ankita got the job after her father, previously a senior Left Front leader crossed over to the Trinamool Congress in 2018.
“Adhikary was a senior leader of the Left Front. When he sided with the TMC, he must have given some conditions. Probably his daughter got the job soon after he joined the TMC. We want to see it till the end,” said Samik Bhattacharya, BJP spokesperson.
The Calcutta high court earlier ordered CBI to probe alleged irregularities in the recruitment of group D staff and assistant teachers in state-run schools.
Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/kolkata-news/question-minister-at-8pm-judge-orders-cbi-probe-in-bengal-teacher-recruitment-101652798569009.html
