The high court on Friday ordered the deployment of armed CRPF personnel to guard the four database rooms in the School Service Commission’s (SSC) office in Salt Lake till June 10 and allowed withdrawal of the force from the rest of the premises.
Documents pertaining to appointments in government-aided schools, including the ones that are under the scanner, are preserved in the database rooms of the commission’s office, Acharya Sadan.
“I don’t see any need for the deployment of the CRPF team in the office of the commission. However, two armed CRPF personnel will guard the four database rooms of the commission till June 10,” Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay said.
The judge had late on Wednesday ordered the deployment of the CRPF at the commission’s office following concerns flagged by teaching aspirants that records related to the allegedly illegal appointments could be tampered with.
The court, which on Thursday asked the CBI to seal the database rooms, did not clarify whether all four rooms would be guarded by two CRPF personnel or each room would have two guards.
The court allowed all staff members of the commission to access the office from Friday. Earlier, the court had allowed only a few officials to enter the office.
Justice Gangopadhyay’s order followed an appeal by the state government against the deployment of the CRPF in the commission’s office.
During the proceedings on Friday, the judge refused to consider the notification issued by the school education department on the appointment of assistant teachers and other staff from among waitlisted candidates who had written TET in 2016.
“This is a bureaucratic duty. I am not bringing this under the purview of any consideration. This has got nothing to do with the merit of the case (on alleged irregularities in recruitments),” said Justice Gangopadhyay.
“Since the judge refused to consider the notification, the school education department now cannot go ahead with the recruitments,” said an official of the department.
Education minister Bratya Basu had on May 5 said the government had decided to create 5,261 teaching and non-teaching posts. The posts were to be filled with waitlisted candidates.
Siddhartha Majumdar, who had resigned as chairman of the school service commission on Wednesday, turned up at the SSC office on Friday as well.
“Since his successor Subhra Chakrabarti has not yet taken charge, Majumdar is attending office for routine work,” said an official of the commission. Majumdar refused to comment.
He had resigned a day after attending a virtual hearing in the high court in connection with alleged irregularities in the appointment of Ankita Adhikary, daughter of the minister of state for education Paresh Adhikary, as an assistant teacher at a government-aided school.