The Supreme Court on Thursday directed Kuntal Ghosh, a youth wing leader of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), to approach the Calcutta High Court for his bail application related to the school jobs-for-cash scam in West Bengal. The Bench, which included Justices Surya Kant, CT Ravikumar, and Ujjal Bhuyan, instructed the High Court to expedite the hearing, aiming for a resolution within four weeks.
Ghosh’s legal battle intensified after a previous judge had made significant headway in his case. His current plea, routed through Advocate Shilpa Singh and prepared by Advocates Balwant Singh Billowria and MS Khan, seeks a fresh bail hearing before a new trial judge—a request that was turned down by a lower court on October 8. Following the rejection, the Supreme Court has now redirected the plea back to the Calcutta High Court for an urgent review.
The case stems from allegations of widespread irregularities in the recruitment of primary and secondary school teachers in West Bengal during the 2016 recruitment process. Ghosh was arrested in January last year by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as part of an ongoing investigation into these allegations.
The 2016 recruitment exams, which attracted over 23 lakh candidates vying for 24,000 vacancies, came under scrutiny when it was revealed that many appointments were based on incorrect evaluations of OMR sheets. The controversy has since ensnared several high-profile figures, including former State Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, TMC MLAs Manik Bhattacharya and Jiban Krishna Saha, and other suspended party leaders.
Earlier in May, the Supreme Court had paused a Calcutta High Court order that annulled nearly 24,000 jobs granted under the disputed recruitment process. This move has allowed the investigation to continue without immediate disruption to the implicated individuals’ employment statuses.
