WB SSC Scam: High Court Orders Immediate Appointment of Babita Sarkar in Place of Ankita Adhikari
Image Courtesy: PTI
Babita Sarkar will have to be appointed as a teacher within the next three days, per order by Calcutta High Court on Friday.
The Calcutta High Court also directed the State School Service Commission to pay all the money returned by Ankita Adhikari, daughter of Minister Paresh Adhikari, to Sarkar.
The case was heard on a single bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay. During the hearing, the judge said that Babita Sarkar would have to be given a job in the vacant post after the dismissal of Ankita Adhikari. The commission will have to submit the job recommendation letter by June 27. It must be sent to the Higher Secondary Board by June 28, and the appointment letter must be given to the board by June 30.
Apart from this, Sarkar will get about Rs 8 lakhs returned by Ankita Adhikari within 10 days. SSC was instructed to give a job to Sarkar in the same school where Ankita Adhikari used to work.
During the hearing, the judge wanted to know whether Sarkar had been given a job. In response, the commission's lawyer said that Sarkar would be recommended for an appointment during the next recruitment process.
The lawyer for the board told the court on Friday that Ankita Adhikari did not give any interview as per the statement of the chairman of the board.
In this context, the judge held that Ankita Adhikari's actions were illegal; hence, she is not entitled to any salary.
The case came to light after Sarkar alleged that Ankita Adhikari had gotten her teaching job illegal without appearing in the recruitment process. As per her allegation, Ankita Adhikari's recruitment happened after her father joined Trinamool Congress in 2018. She was appointed as a teacher at Indira Girls School in Koochbihar.
Due to her illegal appointment, Sarkar couldn't make it to the merit list. She was at number 20 in the list, but since Ankita Adhikari took the number 1 spot, Sarkar's number got pushed by 1. In the recruitment, the top 20 were hired, and Sarkar missed by one.
After this incident, Sarkar filed a case in the Calcutta High Court alleging corruption in the appointment of class XI-XII teacher recruitment process. After examining all the evidence in that case, Justice Gangopadhyay ordered the dismissal of the minister's daughter and a refund of all the money she received as salary.
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