High Court relief to teachers in education scam

SHILLONG: In what can be termed as a major relief to the 260 teachers terminated on the basis of CBI report following investigation in eight examination centres, the High Court of Meghalaya on Tuesday accepted the plea of the teachers and has allowed them to file a representation before the High Level Scrutiny Committee to declare themselves as untainted.
The petitioner case was filed under the aegis of All Meghalaya Primary Teachers Association and it was argued by Senior Advocate Supreme Court of India, Salman Khursheed and assisted by P Yobin and associates.
It may be mentioned that on November 2, 2017 the Division Bench of the Meghalaya High Court had directed the CBI to carry out investigation with respect to ten examination centres. The High Court was examining cases pertaining to five sub-centres at that relevant point of time.
Some of the alleged tainted teachers from the five centres had approached the Apex Court and status quo was granted to them.
The termination of the 260 teachers took effect after the CBI had found them tainted in the alleged education scam involving a sitting legislator and high-ranking officials of the Education department.
The CBI has already charge sheeted former Education Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh, retired government officials, JD Sangma and AI Lyngdoh for manipulating score sheets of candidates, who had appeared for the tests.
Earlier, after the first CBI report had revealed irregularities in the recruitment in five examination centers, the government had terminated the service of 246 ‘tainted’ teachers.
On June 29, the Education department terminated the service of another batch of 260 tainted teachers after the CBI completed its probe into anomalies in the remaining centres.