Cash-for-Jobs Scam: Calcutta High Court Grants Bail to Partha Chatterjee in Primary Teacher Recruitment Case

The Calcutta High Court on Friday granted bail to former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee in the cash for jobs scam registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), more than three years after his arrest in connection with irregularities in primary teacher recruitments done by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE).

In 2021, it came to light that hundreds of ineligible candidates had been appointed as primary school teachers in exchange for bribes. The CBI registered an FIR on June 9, 2022 following the high court directions, while the Enforcement Directorate (ED) launched a parallel money-laundering probe. Chatterjee was first arrested by the ED in July 2022, and later shown as arrested by the CBI in October 2024. He has since remained in custody, barring interim reliefs in connected cases.

Chatterjee was given bail last month by the Supreme Court in the case over bribes for recruitment to the posts of Assistant Teachers for Classes IX and X, Classes XI and XII and non-teaching staff of Group ‘C’ and Group ‘D’ category.

In the present case, according to the CBI, as many as 752 candidates who had failed the recruitment process were falsely marked as “withheld,” and 310 of them were eventually appointed as teachers. The agency alleged that Chatterjee, in criminal conspiracy with former Board President Manik Bhattacharya, facilitated these appointments without mandatory interviews or tests. Witnesses, including insiders from the recruitment process, claimed that lists of ineligible candidates were manipulated in the minister’s presence and added to official rolls.

Chatterjee’s counsel, however, argued that the case rested entirely on documentary evidence already in the custody of the investigating agencies and the courts. They pointed out that he had been interrogated only once since his arrest, and that the Supreme Court had already granted him bail in the parallel ED case last year. His advancing age, ill health, and the fact that almost all other co-accused, including Bhattacharya, were already on bail were also highlighted before the court.

The bench of Justice Surva Ghosh acknowledged the seriousness of the charges, describing them as “grave allegations of corruption which deprive deserving candidates of public employment and affect society at large". At the same time, it noted that further custodial interrogation was unnecessary, since the evidence in question was largely documentary and had already been secured.

The judge also stressed that indefinite incarceration of an undertrial would amount to punitive detention, which is impermissible under Article 21 of the Constitution.

Therefore, court allowed the bail petition. However, it imposed stringent conditions. Chatterjee has been asked to furnish a bond of Rs. 10 lakh with sureties, surrender his passport, report weekly to the investigating officer, and refrain from contacting witnesses or tampering with evidence. He has also been barred from holding any public office during the pendency of the trial, though he continues to remain a member of the state legislative assembly. Any violation of these conditions, the court warned, could lead to immediate cancellation of bail by the trial court.