Bengal school job case: Calcutta HC directs serving of notices to WBSSC recruits of 2016

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed the state government to serve notices to all teaching and non-teaching staff of state-run schools who were recruited by the West Bengal School Service Commission in 2016.

A division bench of Justices Debangsu Basak and Shabbar Rashidi, the new special bench in Calcutta High Court constituted to hear all cases related to the alleged cash-for-school-job case, gave this direction on Wednesday while hearing on a relevant case relating to recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in 2016.

According to the bench, if any of these teaching and non-teaching staff had any information to share or any submission to make, they would be able to do that in front of the bench and hence the notices should be served to them.

The individuals to be served notices include all secondary and higher-secondary teachers and non-teaching staff in both Group C and Group D categories.

As per estimates, the notices will be slapped on around 26,000 individuals.

The special was constituted after the Supreme Court recently returned all the cases relating to the alleged multi-crore cash-for-school job scam in West Bengal to Calcutta High Court.

On Wednesday, the bench also directed the appointment of a special nodal officer to supervise the entire process of serving notices to the teaching and non-teaching staff.

The next date of hearing in the matter will be on January 9 next year and on that day the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will submit its final report on the progress of investigation in the matter to the court.