A single judge at the Calcutta High Court is set to deliver a key ruling on Friday that could finally free former West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee after more than three years in jail. Justice Suvra Ghosh will decide on Chatterjee’s bail plea in a major case tied to the West Bengal school jobs scam.
The hearing wrapped up on September 15, but the court held off on the order until now. Chatterjee, who also serves as Trinamool Congress general secretary, faces charges from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over irregularities in hiring primary teachers across the state. Both the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have called him the main figure behind the alleged corruption.
This school jobs scam spans six categories of appointments in West Bengal’s education system. They include hires for secondary teachers, higher secondary teachers, and upper-primary teachers handled by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC). There’s also the primary teachers recruitment by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE), plus non-teaching staff in Group-C and Group-D roles, again through WBSSC.
Chatterjee has already won bail in the other cases, but he’s stayed locked up over the primary teachers issue. If Justice Ghosh rules in his favor, he could walk out just before Durga Puja celebrations kick off at the end of the month.
Among all those caught up in the school jobs cases, Chatterjee has spent the longest stretch behind bars—arrested on July 23, 2022, first by ED officers at his home and later formally by the CBI. His release would mark a big shift in this ongoing probe into one of India’s largest education recruitment scandals.
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