Special bench of Calcutta HC formed to hear all Bengal school job cases

Kolkata: Calcutta High Court on Friday announced the formation of a special bench as directed by the Supreme Court for hearing all cases relating to the alleged multi-crore cash-for-school-job scam in West Bengal.

A special bench of Justices Debangsu Basak and Shabbar Rashidi will henceforth hear all the cases in the matter.

The announcement was made just a day after a fresh appeal at the Calcutta High Court's division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya sought quick formation of the special bench to hear those cases on Thursday.

Chief Justice Sivagnanam assured the petitioner of quick action and as promised, the announcement was made this noon.

On November 10, the Supreme Court's division bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M. Trivedi returned to the Calcutta High Court all the cases pertaining to the alleged cash-for-school-job scam.

Besides directing the formation of a special bench for hearing in the matter, the apex court also directed winding up all cases relating to the matter within the next six months.

The apex court also directed the central agencies to wind up their investigation in the matter within the next couple of months.

Political and legal observers feel that following the order of the Supreme Court fixing the deadline, the central agencies are now under pressure to act fast in the matter.

Earlier, the Calcutta High Court too has directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to complete the investigation in the school job cases by December 31.