Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the Calcutta High Court on Friday asked the education department to hand Bobita Sarkar the amount that Ankita Adhikari, daughter of minister Paresh Adhikari, had drawn as salary since her illegal appointment as assistant teacher in a government-aided school.
Sarkar had submitted in the court that she had been denied assistant teacher’s job though her score in the teachers’ eligibility test (TET), conducted by the West Bengal School Service Commission, was higher than Ankita’s.
Justice Gangopadhyay had ordered Ankita’s dismissal and also asked her to return to the government the amount she had drawn as salary since her appointment two years ago.
The judge on Friday said the Rs 8 lakh that Ankita had returned to the education department in the first instalment should immediately be handed to Bobita.
Ankita is supposed to return an equal amount by early July. The judge also ordered the School Service Commission to appoint Bobita as assistant teacher by July 10 in a secondary school in north Bengal and approve her service within 10 days thereafter.
Bobita had mentioned in the petition that her score in the teachers’ eligibility test, conducted by the school service commission, was more than Ankita’s.
It emerged that Ankita had scored 61 out of 90 in the written test. Bobita, the court was told, scored 77 out of 100, including 10 in the personality test.
The court sought to know from the commission’s chairman Ankita’s score in the personality test.
“The chairman checked the records and informed the court that he didn’t have any information about the minister’s daughter’s score in the personality test,” an official of the commission had then said.
“Even if Ankita had appeared for the personality test and obtained the full 10 marks, she could not have reached the rank shown on the merit list published by the school service commission,” the judge had said.
