The Calcutta High Court has rejected the bail pleas of former education minister Partha Chatterjee and four others in the School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam case which is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The others who had submitted bail pleas include former senior officials of the education department Subiresh Bhattacharjee, Ashok Kumar Saha, Kalyanmoy Ganguly, and Santi Prasad Sinha.

The bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty observed that if the accused are released on bail, it will be an injustice to the deserving candidates, besides having an impact on the education system as a whole. The court further observed that it was unable to understand why the chief secretary and the state administration were completely silent on the matter.

In November, a two-judge division bench of the high court delivered a split verdict on a bail petition moved by Chatterjee and the four other accused in the case.

While Justice Arijit Banerjee approved the bail pleas of all who appealed before the bench, Justice Apurba Sinha Ray decided against granting bail to Chatterjee and the others.

Among the other accused, Bhattacharjee served as the former state SSC chairman and subsequently as vice-chancellor of North Bengal University, while Saha acted as the former assistant secretary to the commission during the time period of the scam. Ganguly was president of the state secondary education board during the period, and Sinha is the former advisor to the state SSC.

Last Friday, the Supreme Court granted conditional bail to Partha Chatterjee in connection with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) probe into the alleged teacher recruitment scam in the state.

The bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan said the suspended TMC leader must be released on February 1, 2025, or earlier if the trial court was able to complete certain proceedings before then.

Directing the trial court to expedite the proceedings in the case, it also said that the TMC leader should not be appointed to any public office upon release, but can remain an MLA.

In July 2022, the ED arrested the then West Bengal industries and commerce minister and senior Trinamool Congress leader Partha Chatterjee in connection with irregularities in recruitment to the West Bengal School Service Commission. Chatterjee was a minister of state in the education department when the alleged irregularities occurred.