The CBI on Tuesday submitted before a special division bench of Calcutta High Court the final report on the investigation into alleged irregularities in recruitment of teachers in government-aided secondary and higher secondary schools in or after 2014.
CBI counsel Billwadal Bhattacharya handed the report to the court in a sealed cover.
The bench headed by Justice Debangshu Basak had last month directed the investigating agency to submit its final report by January 9, as specified by the Supreme Court.
“The CBI on Monday filed in the Alipore court its final chargesheet against those accused of irregularities in recruitment of teachers at the secondary and the higher secondary levels,” Bhattacharya submitted before the bench.
Justice Basak, the senior judge on the special division bench, asked him: “Can we hand over the copies of the final report to the other parties of the case?”
Bhattacharya said: “Copies of the chargesheet should not be made public. As for the final report, copies can be handed to the other parties.”
The others parties in the case are the school service commission (SSC), state government, job aspirants who are claiming they have been unfairly denied jobs and teachers who are fearing termination of service if they are found to have been appointed illegally.
On December 20, the SSC had submitted in the high court a report which said the commission had cancelled the recommendations based on which 808 secondary-level teachers, 842 Group C employees and 1,911 Group D employees had been appointed in government-aided schools on the ground that they had been given jobs illegally.
The report also said the SSC had identified about 770 teachers in the higher secondary level whose appointments were allegedly illegal and who were still working.
The report is now with the special division bench of Justice Basak and Justice Md Shabbar Rashidi.
The bench handed a copy of the report to the CBI and asked the agency to file their submissions on January 9.
The CBI started investigating the alleged irregularities following an order from Justice Avijit Gangopadhyay of the high court. The judge had directed the SSC to cancel the appointments of the teachers hired illegally and to give the jobs to deserving candidates.
The SSC and the state appealed against the order before the high court division bench headed by Justice Subrata Talukdar. The teachers who are fearing job loss moved the division bench, too.
The division bench upheld Justice Gangopadhyay’s order, prompting the appellants to move the Supreme Court.
The apex court sent the cases back to the Chief Justice of the high court with a directive to set up a special bench. The apex court also ordered the CBI to complete its probe within two months.
The matter is likely to come up for hearing before the special division bench on Wednesday.