Tag: Calcutta

Teachers’ scam: Now Calcutta HC judge will play role of investigator

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Kolkata: Now a Calcutta High Court judge will play the role of an investigator in the multi-crore teachers’ recruitment irregularities scam in West Bengal.
Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, whose verdict last year prompted central agencies like Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) to probe, will directly question the panel of interviewers in the recruitment of teachers by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).
His decision on the count has been taken following the complaints by many candidates that the interview process, especially as regards to aptitude test which carries separate marks, was a farce. They alleged that there was no practical test which is an essential part of the aptitude test and many alleged they were relieved of the interview process by the interviews by just asking their and their parents’ names.
In the first phase, Justice Gangopadhyay will interrogate 40 such interviewers in four districts, where such complaints had been maximum. Calcutta High Court sources said that the interrogation process by Justice Gangopadhyay will be very soon and probably during the current month.
The interrogation will be closed-door and the entire proceedings on this count will be in-camera, where none other than the judge, the interviewers and their counsel will be allowed to stay.
Senior High Court counsel Kaushik Gupta said that this is something really unprecedented where a high court judge is playing the role of an investigator. “I have been practicing in the same court for 26 years. I have never heard of such an incident,” he said.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 20, 2023
Calcutta HC questions irrational posting, distribution of Bengal teachers

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Kolkata: A single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court on Friday questioned the “irrational” distribution of postings of teachers in different state-run schools in West Bengal where schools with adequate number of students have an inadequate number of teachers while those with fewer students have too many teachers.
During the course of hearing on a matter relating to teachers’ transfers, it came to the notice of Justice Biswajit Basu of Calcutta High court that a school in Kolkata- adjacent Howrah district having a total student strength of 13 has five teachers.
This is in sharp contrast to another school in the same district, where only eight teachers are catering to a total student strength of 550. This school is running without any proper teacher for crucial subjects like mathematics and geography.
Expressing regret over this irrational teacher to student ratio in schools, Justice Basu also questioned the requirement of running schools with such few numbers of students. He also questioned whether it is not better to withdraw the recognition of such schools and transfer the teachers posted there to schools without adequate teaching staff.
The counsel for the state education department said that there can be problems if such a step is taken since there can be political pressures in the matter.
“Forget about the political pressures. There is an urgent requirement of improving the academic grades of the schools. Why can’t we think of model schools? There are girls’ schools in the state which neither have adequate teachers nor security staff and not even proper toilets. How can one remain silent in such a situation?” Justice Basu questioned them.
Advising the state education system to introduce a proper and transparent transfer policy, Justice Basu said that teachers who refuse to abide by the transfer policy should be denied their salary from the next month.
“We will have to first think of the interest of the students. I know that changing the process is time consuming. But we will have to achieve it,” Justice Basu observed.

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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 17, 2023
Calcutta HC orders termination of service of 2,819 non-teaching staff

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Kolkata: A single judge bench of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) to terminate the services of 2,819 illegally-appointed non-teaching staff of Group-D category in different state-run schools.
Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the Calcutta High Court directed the commission to upload the list of these 2,819 non-teaching staff on the commission’s website within 24 hours and accordingly start the process of terminating their services.
The WBSSC counsel on Thursday admitted before the court that following the review of the recruitment details of these 2,819 non-teaching staff, it has been proved beyond doubts that there had been irregularities in the recruitment process, especially tampering of the optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets in the written examination.
Thereafter, Justice Gangopadhyay said that when the commission is admitting that there had been irregularities, it should initiate the necessary proceedings in the matter at the earliest.
“First publish the names of these candidates on the website and then cancel their appointments. Complete the entire process within the next 24 hours,” Justice Gangopadhyay directed the WBSSC’s counsel.
It is learnt that on Friday, the commission will submit an affidavit to the court in the matter. Thereafter, first these names would be published on its website following which the commission will order for cancellation of their appointments.
A state education department official, who refused to be named, said that several schools will face crisis after this order of the high court is implemented.
“There are several schools which have just one Group-D staff responsible for jobs like locking and unlocking of classrooms and ringing the period bell, among others. Now the teachers employed in these schools will have to do that work till the time fresh appointments are made,” he said.

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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 9, 2023
Forceful removal of innerwear of minor girls equivalent to rape: Calcutta HC

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Kolkata: Forceful removal of the innerwear of a minor girl is equivalent to rape even if rape, as per medical terms, has not been done by the accused or convict, the Calcutta High Court has held.
A single judge bench of Justice Ananya Bandopadhyay made this ruling while hearing a case in which Robi Roy was declared as guilty by a lower court in Dinajpur district in 2008.
On May 7, 2007, Roy was acccused of alluring a minor girl in his locality to a secluded place after promising her an ice cream. There he first asked her to remove her innerwear. When the victim refused, he forcefully removed her innerwear.
The victim started shouting which caught the attention of the people residing nearby, who rushed to spot, assaulted Robi Roy and handed him over to the local police. In November 2008, a trial court, finding him guilty, sentenced him to imprisonment for five and a half years and also slapped a Rs 3,000 fine on him.
After being freed from jail, he challenged the order of the lower district court at the Calcutta High Court claiming that he was falsely implicated which caused loss of his social prestige. He claimed that his intention was to express his fatherly affection towards the victim.
Justice Bandopadhyay, however, upheld the order of the lower court and observed that the intention of alluring the victim with ice-cream had mal-intention.
“The victim was allured with ice-cream by the convict just to satisfy his sexual desires. When the victim refused to open her innerwear as asked by the convict, he forcefully removed that. This cannot be treated as an expression of affection. This is equivalent to rape or attempt to rape,” Justice Bandopadhyay observed.
Although medical examination proved that that the minor girl was not a victim of rape, the judge observed that the entire incident is similar to rape of sexual offense under Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code.

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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 7, 2023
SC imposes interim stay on demolition order passed by Calcutta HC

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Saturday imposed an interim stay on a February 3 order of the Calcutta High Court order directing the demolition of a building.
In a special hearing, a bench of justices V Ramasubramanian and Hrishikesh Roy issued a notice in the matter and sought a response from the parties.
Senior advocate Siddhartha Dave, appearing for petitioners, contended that the impugned order directing demolition of the building has been passed in a contempt case which is pending, and the petitioners are yet to be found guilty.
“It is also contended that in the event of the court carrying out the demolition now and eventually finding the petitioners not guilty of contempt, there must be one more restitution which is not permissible in law.
“In view of the above, issue notice returnable on March 14, 2023. There will be an interim suspension of the impugned order till the next date of hearing,” the bench said.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 4, 2023