Of the many cases of corruption in Meghalaya one that stands out is the Education Department’s misdemeanour of 2009 where the results of the recruitment test for lower primary school teachers in government schools were manipulated, allegedly, by no less than the minister herself. The then Director, Mass and Elementary Education, was asked to put white ink over the names of candidates who had qualified and to insert the names of those who failed to qualify but had approached their respective MLAs to pull strings on their behalf. In April 2010 the aggrieved candidates who did not qualify approached the Shillong Bench of the Gauhati High Court to conduct a probe into the irregularities in the selection process after they had got RTI replies and observed that the marks scored by qualified candidates were tampered with to facilitate appointment of unqualified candidates.
Accordingly the Court ordered a CBI enquiry. A 107 page CBI report was submitted to the Court in March 2012. The Court sent the report to the Government asking for Action Taken Report (ATR), but the Government appealed to the Court to set aside the CBI report. In August 2012 the Court ordered setting up of High Level Scrutiny Committee (HLSC) to ascertain the legality of candidates selected and those not selected and to segregate the candidates that used political clout to get their names included in the list of qualified teachers. In July 2013 the HLSC submitted its report to Government following which the unqualified teachers were dismissed in February 2014. Some who were affected by the action approached the Supreme Court in a special leave petition but the apex court returned the case to the Meghalaya High Court in March 2017 for its disposal.
The HLSC has strongly recommended setting up of a separate professional recruitment board to conduct fool-proof recruitment tests henceforth.
Meanwhile Police are taking their own time to investigate the criminal aspects of the case and to file charge sheets which could lead to the arrest of the guilty. When the HLSC report has clearly pointed to wrongdoing why is Police delaying the matter unless they are under political pressure. And this is not new to Meghalaya. It is now for the Court to take stringent action against Police for not carrying out its duty in the interests of justice.