Calcutta HC orders CBI probe into ‘irregularities’ in school staff appointments

Justice Gangopadhyay directed the regional head of the CBI to question SP Sinha, former WBSSC advisor by Thursday midnight.

Calcutta High Court (File photo)

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday ordered a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged irregularities in the appointment of Group-D (non-teaching staff) in state-sponsored secondary and higher secondary schools under the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) on the purported recommendation by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).

Justice Gangopadhyay directed the regional head of the CBI to question SP Sinha, former WBSSC advisor by Thursday midnight.

“I direct the regional head of the Central Bureau of Investigation to call Mr SP Sinha in course of the day and start questioning him. The CBI is directed to initiate the said interrogation in course of the day — I mean by 12 midnight today. With this action, the CBI investigation will start. This matter will appear tomorrow for further hearing,” Gangopadhyay said. In 2016, the Bengal government had recommended the appointment of nearly 13,000 non-teaching staff in different government-aided schools, following which the WBSSC conducted examinations and interviews periodically, and a panel was constituted, too. The term of the panel expired in 2019.

Ever since, however, there have been widespread allegations that the Commission made several “irregular recruitment close to 500 even after the panel seized to exist”. The court observed that the petitioners had given a list of 98 persons for the appointment in Group D posts. The WBBSE in an affidavit submitted on February 22, 2022, had stated that on the basis of the recommendations received from the WBSSC, both through hard copy and soft copy, between December 2019 and February 2020, the appointment letters were issued by them.

Indicting SP Sinha as “one of the kingpins of this corruption”, Justice Gangopadhyay ordered, “A thorough probe is required to bust the racket of giving illegal appointments. I have found from other similar matters that the said Dr Santi Prasad Sinha as one of the kingpins of this corruption of giving an illegal public appointment.”

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