W.B. teacher scam: SC refuses to halt probe against TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee
The Hindu
The Supreme Court on July 10 refused to interfere with the CBI and Enforcement Directorate probe against TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee in the alleged West Bengal teacher recruitment scam, saying it cannot stultify the investigation in the case.
The Supreme Court on July 10 refused to interfere with the CBI and Enforcement Directorate probe against TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee in the alleged West Bengal teacher recruitment scam, saying it cannot stultify the investigation in the case.
A bench of Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice P.S. Narasimha allowed Mr. Banerjee to avail available remedies under the law but refused to interfere with the May 18 order of the Calcutta High Court.
"We are not going to interfere with the impugned order as this would stultify the investigation. Petitioner can avail the available remedies under the law”, the bench said.
On May 26, the top court had stayed the imposition of ₹25 lakh cost on Mr. Banerjee by the high court which had dismissed his plea for recall of its previous order that CBI and ED could interrogate him in the West Bengal school jobs scam cases.
The top court had however not stayed part of the high court order which had said the central probe agencies could quiz the Trinamool Congress general secretary in connection with these cases.
Abhishek Banerjee is the nephew of TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The Calcutta High Court had dismissed a petition filed by Mr. Banerjee, a Lok Sabha MP, seeking recall of its previous order which said probe agencies such as the CBI and ED could interrogate him in the case related to the scam.
“Writing, in general, is a very solitary process,” says Yauvanika Chopra, Associate Director at The New India Foundation (NIF), which, earlier this year, announced the 12th edition of its NIF Book Fellowships for research and scholarship about Indian history after Independence. While authors, in general, are built for it, it can still get very lonely, says Chopra, pointing out that the fellowship’s community support is as valuable as the monetary benefits it offers. “There is a solid community of NIF fellows, trustees, language experts, jury members, all of whom are incredibly competent,” she says. “They really help make authors feel supported from manuscript to publication, so you never feel like you’re struggling through isolation.”
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.