Calcutta HC grants bail to ex-Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee in teacher recruitment scam cases

A single-judge bench of Justice Suvra Ghosh asked Chatterjee to surrender his passport and not to assume any public office when the trial is underway.

On bail, the former Trinamool Congress (TMC) heavyweight has been barred from leaving the trial court jurisdiction.

Apart from Chatterjee, former primary education board president and Trinamool MLA Manik Bhattacharya, youth leader Kuntal Ghosh are among the people who were arrested so far in connection with the scam.

Former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Ganguly, who is now contesting the Lok Sabha elections on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket, had ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged irregularities in the recruitment process.

On April 3, the Supreme Court cancelled appointments of nearly 26,000 teaching and non-teaching staff by the SSC upholding the Calcutta High Court's order.

The top court passed the order after the SSC failed to provide two separate lists of deserving and undeserving candidates after the government faced corruption allegations in the recruitment process.

A top court bench comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar said the selection process was "vitiated and tainted by fraud".

In April 2024, the Calcutta High Court had cancelled recruitment of nearly 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff in government-sponsored and government-aided schools, dismissing the entire 2016 teacher recruitment panel.

The panel was constituted by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).