Education scam
SHILLONG: The pending education scam case will come up for hearing in the High Court of Meghalaya on April 10.
The recent order of the apex court where the matter was pending was that the parties concerned will appear before the High Court on April 10 for further proceedings.
The Supreme Court in its March 24 order made the formation of the High Level Scrutiny Committee (HLSC) that probed the education scam non-functional.
The apex court also made absolute the stay against the order of the division bench of the Gauhati High Court on August 16, 2012, which facilitated the formation of HLSC.
“The matter is remitted back to the Meghalaya High Court for fresh decision in accordance with law,” the apex court had said.
The interim stay by the Apex Court against the order of the Gauhati High Court was effected in April 2014 based on a Special Leave Petition. It was filed by 40 tainted teachers led by Emkupar S. Syiem and represented by Advocate Kaustav Paul.
During the hearing of the matter in the Supreme Court on March 24, the counsel appearing for State government, Rachana Srivastava, submitted that out of 268 candidates who were appointed, services of 249 were terminated as per the findings of HLSC.
The senior counsel appearing for the appellants, Jaideep Gupta, disputed this and submitted that the CBI inquiry as directed by the single bench of the High Court has already been concluded and the report received by the High Court is lying in a sealed cover.
On the other hand, Srivastava said the HLSC report appointed in terms of the High Court order has also submitted its report.
After hearing both the parties, the Supreme Court said, “We are of the view that the High Court ought to have a fresh look at the matter in the light of the two reports which have already been submitted and after hearing the parties concerned.”
The CBI report had named the then Education Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh and the department officials in connection with the scam.
The 107-page CBI report had said, “It was felt necessary to examine J.D Sangma, the then Director DEME. In course of his examination by the CBI, Sangma has stated that under the instruction of the then Minister of Education, Ampareen Lyngdoh, he had to change the score sheets as prepared by all the five boards duly applying white fluid on the original marks, as awarded by the members of the Board. Sangma also handed over a file containing the list received by the Minister from different persons/ MLAs/ ministers recommending the names of their own candidates for selection as teacher in LP schools in Meghalaya.”
Later, the government filed a petition in the Division Bench of the Gauhati High Court for the constitution of High-level Scrutiny Committee instead of taking action based on the findings of the CBI.
