Primary teachers' recruitment scam: Order for CBI probe challenged

The order by Calcutta High Court's single-judge bench of Justice Avijit Gangopadhyay for a CBI probe in the primary teachers' recruitment irregularities scam was on Thursday challenged in a division bench.

There are two parts of the order by Justice Gangopadhyay. On June 13, 2022, his bench ordered a CBI inquiry into the matter. However, considering the gravity of the order, Justice Gangopadhyay took his earlier order further by asking the CBI to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) in probing the matter exclusively.

Now, on Thursday afternoon, West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE), whose officials had been made responsible for such irregularities, approached Calcutta High Court's division bench of Justice Subrata Talukdar challenging the entire order for CBI inquiry in the matter by Justice Gangopadhyay.

Admitting the challenge petition from WBBPE, Justice Talukdar's bench informed that the first hearing in the matter will be conducted on June 20. In its petition, the WBBPE said that the recruitment process was absolutely transparent and there had been no irregularities in the procedure.

While ordering CBI probe in the matter on June 13, Justice Gangopadhyay directed immediate cancellation of appointment of 269 primary teachers, who reportedly secured jobs flouting all norms, where some did not secure qualifying marks and some did not even appear for the entrance examination.

On June 15, while ordering CBI to form a SIT to probe the matter, Justice Gangopadhyay also said that the members of the said SIT cannot be allotted any other probe assignment or even cannot be transferred till the completion of the investigation process on this count.

Justice Gangopadhyay, after assigning so many CBI probes since November last year, expressed frustration over the progress of investigation in all these cases.

CBI is already investigating the West Bengal Board of School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment irregularities scam and also questioned former state education minister and Trinamool Congress secretary.