Blitz Bureau
THE Calcutta High Court recently held that the West Bengal Government’s proposed scheme to pay a stipend to non-teaching staff losing jobs following an order from the Supreme Court in April this year amounted to “fraudulent activity, cheating, and corruption” as it stayed the measure for now.
A single-judge Bench of Justice Amrita Sinha made this observation while putting an interim stay restraining from making payments for providing stipends for the non-teaching staff under the scheme christened “West Bengal Livelihood and Special Security Interim Scheme”.
A detailed study of the order, which was made available later, showed how the single-judge Bench contended the payment of stipend to the non-teaching staff violated the Supreme Court order that not only terminated the jobs but also ordered for refund of salaries paid to candidates “tainted” by getting jobs through fraudulent means.
“Proceeding to provide payment to the tainted candidates instead of proceeding to obtain a refund of the payment received by them, calls for interference by the court,” read the order, a copy of which is available with IANS. Justice Sinha also observed that it was the duty of the state government to honour the order of the Supreme Court. In the order, the Bench has questioned the rationale of the state government behind spending money from the public exchequer for those who would not give any service in return to the state government in exchange for the stipend paid to them.
“Permitting the State to proceed with the scheme will tacitly support fraudulent activity, cheating, and corruption,” read the order.
