School Jobs Scam: Calcutta High Court pulls up Chief Secretary for delay over sanction to prosecute State officials

The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday pulled up West Bengal Chief Secretary BP Gopalika for failing to submit a report spelling out the timeframe within which he would decide whether to grant sanction to prosecute Education Department officials who have been booked in the School Jobs for Cash Scam [Kuntal Ghosh vs Central Bureau of Investigation]..A division bench of Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Gaurang Kanth also refused to grant time to Gopalika till the conclusion of the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections for filing his report."If this (Lok Sabha elections) is the plea, we will record this and ask him to appear personally," the bench told the government counsel, who urged the court to grant him (chief secretary) time at least till the elections are over.The bench granted time till April 9 to the Chief Secretary to file a report spelling out the time frame within which he will be deciding on the grant of sanction to prosecute the public servants.The Court was hearing a clutch of petitions filed by various accused in the scam case who have sought bail.The Court noted that a prayer was made by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in September 2022 to the State Chief Secretary for granting sanction to proceed against the public servants booked in the scam case."A prayer was made for grant of sanction in September 2022, which is about more than one and a half year than your election notification. We don't know what prevented the Chief Secretary to apply his mind independently and take a decision," the Court said.The judges added that they were conscious that they cannot issue a mandamus to the Chief Secretary to grant or not grant sanction. "But we can definitely ask him a reasonable time frame, in which he will take a call on this. Give a report within which time you are going to give sanction because before us is a motley crowd of undertrials suffering detention for more than one and a half years. They all await the wise decision of the Chief Secretary on this very point," Justice Bagchi observed before adjourning the case for April 9. .The infamous School Jobs for Cash Scam pertains to various illegal recruitments made in the primary and secondary schools across the State, during the recruitment process of 2016. Several persons including the former education minister Partha Chatterjee and Trinamool Congress (TMC) party MLAs - Manik Bhattacharya and Jiban Krishna Saha are behind bars for their alleged involvement in the scam along with suspended TMC leaders like Santanu Kundu and Kuntal Ghosh.