Cash For Job Scam: Justice Joymalya Bagchi Recuses From Hearing Partha Chatterjee's Plea

Previously

It is to be noted that on May 8, the Supreme Court had tagged the bail plea of former West Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee, accused in the cash-for-jobs scam, with a pending matter filed by a co-accused, and directed the Chief Secretary of West Bengal to take a decision on prosecution sanction within two weeks.

In a related news, the Supreme Court on December 13, 2024, had ordered, "While the appellant may challenge the framing of charges, the examination of witnesses must proceed without delay. Most importantly, the petitioner shall be released on February 1, 2025. If the trial court completes the framing of charges and the examination of witnesses earlier, the petitioner shall be released immediately thereafter". Clarifying that these directions are only concerning the ED case, the court asked the appellant and their counsels to extend full cooperation to the trial court, noting that witnesses will be examined without prejudice to any rights of the appellant.

On 27 November, the Enforcement Directorate told the Supreme Court that 'undeserving candidates were appointed for money' during the hearing of the bail plea of former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee in a money laundering case. The Bench had observed that, "The allegation is that the petitioner was the Education Minister in the government of West Bengal, and there were allegations of large-scale scams in the recruitment of assistant primary teachers for extreme considerations. The allegation is that the petitioner and his associates Arpita Mukherjee and Manik Bhattacharya, were actively involved."

As the Bench went on to inquire about the current status of custody it asked, "Are you in judicial custody or CBI custody? We want to segregate the period of judicial custody and police custody in ED and CBI? We will take up the matter on Monday. Just get a copy of when you were arrested by CBI for the first time.

Notably, on 7 May, the Supreme Court had stayed the Calcutta High Court's April 22, 2024 judgement quashing the appointment of 23,123 teaching and non-teaching staff in the state made through the State Level Selection Test-2016 (SLST).

The West Bengal government had filed a plea in the Supreme Court questioning the correctness of the Calcutta High Court's order. It also challenged the direction to the candidates who submitted blank OMR sheets but obtained appointments, to return all remunerations and benefits received by them to the State exchequer along with interest calculated at 12 % per annum, from the date of receipt thereof till deposit, within a period of four weeks.

The petitioner had sought an interim stay on the operation of the HC's judgment in the matter.

In what is called as cash-for-job scam, the CBI had arrested former state education minister Partha Chatterjee and other bigwigs and recovered huge caches of cash during the investigation.

On July 2022, A Special Court in Kolkata sent West Bengal Minister and TMC leader Partha Chatterjee to Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody till August 3 in the alleged teachers' recruitment scam during his tenure as the State Education Minister.