The Calcutta High Court voiced displeasure with the several claims of misconduct in public employment and college admissions in West Bengal. The court addressed a public interest case claiming irregularities in the admission procedure for B.Ed. institutions in the state.
A division bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya hearing this PIL matter.
The Court observed, “Wonderful…school teacher recruitment was rigged, police constable recruitment was rigged, both are subject matter of challenges before Court, now even colleges are before court…at this rate children, grandchildren will all have to move out of the state.”
The court heard a Public Interest Litigation claiming irregularities in the admission procedures of B.Ed. colleges and in the recruitment of professors for those institutions affiliated with Babasaheb Ambedkar University.
The petitioners contended that the colleges would disregard the mandatory guidelines set forth by the NCTE in their operations.
The allegations indicate that the university oversees between 600 and 650 B.ED. colleges; however, it appears that the majority lack sufficient infrastructure in accordance with NCTE guidelines.
Notwithstanding this, they were enrolling students and allegedly “extorting” substantial sums in fees, much of which was purportedly syphoned off by “middlemen” facilitating the admissions process.
It was reported that the institutions’ failure to renew their affiliations was causing recruiting issues for the pupils they were admitting.
The petitioners claimed that the Vice-Chancellor was granting sanctions to these colleges without doing any due diligence and requested a CBI probe into the matter.
The court said , “It cannot be that the vice-chancellor does not know anything. He should be removed from office immediately,”.
Since this was the case, the court allowed the parties to file their affidavits within a period of two weeks.
Cause Title: MAT/1059/2022
NASIM AKTER VS STATE OF WEST BENGAL AND ORS.