Fresh plea in Calcutta HC seeks to fast-track hearing in school jobs cases

Kolkata: A fresh appeal has been filed at the Calcutta High Court on Monday seeking fast-track hearing of all cases related to the alleged multi-crore cash-for-school-jobs scam in West Bengal.

The petition has been filed by a section of eligible candidates for school jobs who were unethically denied their berths before the division bench of Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi, which was specially constituted last month for hearing such cases.

It is learnt that the bench admitted the fresh plea filed on Monday and also observed that the petition will be looked into seriously.

This bench was constituted after the Supreme Court on November 10 returned all the cases pertaining to the alleged scam to the Calcutta High Court.

Besides directing the formation of a special bench for hearing the matter, the apex court had also directed to wind up all cases relating to the matter within the next six months. The top court also directed the central agencies to complete their investigation into the matter within the next couple of months.

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

Earlier, the Calcutta High Court too had directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to complete its investigation into the school jobs case by December 31.