Orissa High Court has registered a PIL on alleged “fake schools and bogus teachers of school and mass education department” in the state and issued notice seeking reply from the government.

The PIL was registered on the basis of a letter petition that had alleged “plundering /looting of Rs 200 crore every year from the state treasury by the fake schools and bogus teachers”.

The letter petition seeking a vigilance probe was received from one Sanjaya Kumar Maharana of Patia in Bhubaneswar.

Taking up the petition as a PIL on Monday, the division bench of Chief Justice K.S. Jhaveri and Justice K.R. Mohapatra issued notices seeking a reply from the state government on the allegations made by the petitioner.

The bench accordingly posted the matter to December 21 for hearing, along with the reply by the department secretary.

In his petition, Maharana said: “Though the government is allotting huge amount of money in annual budget for the school and mass education department, plenty of funds allotted for both elementary and secondary education in the state are being taken by fake students and fake teachers.”

Maharana further alleged that the fake teachers were working in both in elementary and secondary-level in bogus schools on the basis of forged certificates procured from Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan. False student rolls are being presented by primary schools to allegedly “loot midday meal” funds.

The petition further alleged that illegally appointed untrained teachers had managed to get promoted to the post of headmaster in 2014 and 2015 and if nothing was done they will would be promoted to the Odisha Education Service.

Earlier, the high court ordered a judicial inquiry after a PIL had alleged grant of recognition and sanctioning of grants-in-aid to private high schools in Kalahandi without any buildings existing in the registered plots shown on records and other mandatory facilities.

Parivartan, a Cuttack-based social service organisation, had filed a PIL in December 1996. The case is pending in the court and nothing is known as to what government action had followed the judicial inquiry.