PIL Filed In Calcutta High Court Seeking Joint Probe By CBI & ED Into Alleged Irregularities In TET 2014

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition had been filed in the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday seeking a joint probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) into the alleged irregularities in the 2014 Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) in West Bengal.

TET 2014 was conducted on October 11, 2015, with over 2.3 million candidates. Several TET 2014 candidates had approached the High Court in 2019, alleging discrepancy in the recruitment process. Thereafter, the Court had cancelled the entire selection process after hearing the matter.

Furthermore, back in September 2021, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the High Court had imposed a heft fine of on the president of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education for flouting an earlier order on TET 2014 to facilitate recruitment of teachers in state-run schools. Justice Gangopadhyay had fixed responsibility on board president Manik Bhattacharya and directed him to pay from his own pocket Rs 20,000 to each of the 19 petitioners adding up to a sum of Rs 3.8 lakh.

The PIL filed by petitioner Tapas Ghosh through advocate Tarunjyoti Tiwari alleged that eligible candidates had not been selected in the examination and that only candidates who had paid money to the members of the ruling party had been recommended for section by the concerned authority. 

"Time to time this Hon'ble High Court passed different orders exposing the irregularities but the Department did not cause any proper investigation. The Board did not publish any transparent merit list of candidates with sole intention to cover the cloud of corruption", the plea further avers. 

The plea further alleged that state education minister Bratya Basu in a public meeting had stated that only members if the ruling TMC party will get jobs and accordingly he had handed out more than 300 jobs to only selectively recommended candidates. 

This comes just four days after Mahua Moitra, Trinamool Congress member of Parilament (MP), warned of alleged irregularities in TET. In her social media post, she had warned that a racket was allegedly operating in which names of candidates were being illegally empanelled in TET after increasing marks in 'back-date'.

The matter is likely to be heard this week.