'Lawyers Are Not For Sale': Special Officer In Calcutta HC Claims He Was Offered Bribe By School Being Probed For Misrepresenting Affiliation

The Calcutta High Court on Thursday continued hearing a plea by parents of students scheduled to appear for their ICSE board exams in 2024, complaining of non-registration of their wards with the Council due to lapses by St Augustine’s Day School’s authorities.

On an earlier occasion, a single-bench of Justice Biswajit Basu had expressed severe condemnation of the school’s alleged misrepresentation of its status as affiliated to the ICSE board, even though such an affiliation had been revoked in 2022.

The Court had appointed DSG Billwadal Bhattacharya as a Special Officer in the matter, and requested him to visit the school to peruse their records and ascertain the total number of bona fide students who were to write their board exams in 2024 in order to facilitate the process.

During the hearing today, Bhattacharya submitted that upon the Court’s instructions, he along with his team had visited the School premises and perused the records, which were not completely handed over by the school authorities. He said:

“Their records were in the godown…I had asked them for production of a student’s register for 9^th and 10^th standard…I took photocopies and asked for the register for students of 10^th standard, since their 7^th standard to ascertain bona fides. Those registers could not be produced. I waited from 4pm to 9pm…yet they could not find keys to the locks. They attempted to give me an exercise book saying that during the pandemic that is where attendance was taken. There are suspicious circumstances…a chartered accountant has been engaged to go through the school’s financial records.”

However, the hearing took a turn when the Special Officer submitted that someone from the school’s authorities had attempted to influence him before his visit to the school.

“I cannot deny that there were attempts to influence the special officer also…from the school. Forgetting the fact that lawyers are not up for sale…so I have taken a screenshot of the phone number and call details…that’s why when I went to the school, I did not accept even a drop of water,” it was submitted.

Upon hearing these submissions, the Court noted that these actions showed that the school authorities had something to hide, and that appropriate criminal action would be taken against those persons who attempted to influence an officer of the Court.

The Bench then summoned Senior Advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya and informed him of the situation with his clients ‘attempting to bribe’ the special officer. The counsel, who was newly engaged in the case, then refused to represent the school authorities and withdrew himself from the case.

Court re-emphasised that the primary aim of the present proceedings would be to enable the aggrieved students to write their board exams from other affiliated schools, after which action would be initiated against the school and school authorities in accordance with law.

Significantly, the Court had directed for the personal appearance of the school’s managing committee and board of trustees. It was informed that the school had applied for re-affiliation after shifting their premises, and that the same application was being deliberated upon by the Council, leading to them admitting students in class 9 and 10 on the expectation of being re-affiliated.

Senior Counsel for the petitioners argued that the parents were in a hapless state, and the future of the children had been thrown in jeopardy by the irresponsible actions of the school.

Case: Swarup Poddar And Ors Vs Council For The Indian School Certificate Examination And Ors

Case No: WPA 22094/2023