By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: In a major set back to the Education department, the Division Bench of the High Court of Meghalaya on Monday asked the High Level Scrutiny Committee (HLSC) to complete the probe on the tampering of mark sheets of eligible teachers within two months.
The State Government had sought an extension of six months for the HLSC to complete the task saying that the score sheets and other documents were not provided.
The three-member HLSC includes EP Kharbhih, Secretary, Education department as Chairman and CCM Mihsil, Joint Secretary, Education department and P Ryngksai, Deputy Director of School Education and Literacy, as members.
After the CBI had unearthed irregularities in the appointment of teachers, the Government had asked for the constitution of HLSC to further scrutinize the matter.
Following a petition by the Government, the Court, in August last year, had asked the Education department to institute the Committee to complete its findings with a deadline of six months to look into the tampering of mark sheets.
Though the HLSC was constituted in September, the Committee claimed that it did not get the necessary papers to proceed with the scrutiny.
This ultimately led to undue delay of almost nine months for the HLSC to finish the probe.
Unable to complete the task, the Government had recently sought an extension of another six months.
The purpose was also to get the score sheets from the CBI as the Education department maintained that the documents were with the registry of the Court.
During the hearing on Monday, the High Court took exception to the claim that the documents were with the registry as the Court found that there were no documents related to the CBI probe with the registry.
The Education department had also sought the intervention of the Court to direct the CBI to furnish the necessary papers to the Committee to carry on with the task.
Earlier, the counsel for the petitioners, MF Qureshi, had maintained that sufficient time was given to the Government to get the documents.
The High Court made it clear that it was up to the Education department to collect the necessary papers from the CBI directly.
With this, the Court rejected the plea for further extension to the HLSC, while asking it to complete the task within two months.