WB: High Court Orders Probe Into Allegations of Recruitment Corruption in Health Department

After education, allegations of corruption in the appointment of medical technologists have surfaced against the health department. To probe this, a three-member investigation committee has been formed on the orders of the Calcutta High Court.

A case was filed in the High Court regarding the alleged illegal appointment of a medical technologist post. A bench of Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Shampa Dutta said, “This recruitment process is a blazing example of nepotism, favouritism and abuse of power. Some people have been recruited selectively in the recruitment process. They are considered blue-eyed. The unconstitutional behaviour of any person is not acceptable in a constitutional institution. So it is very important to find out the truth.”

To investigate this allegation, the High Court on Wednesday formed a three-member committee headed by former High Court Justice Jayant Kumar Biswas. Apart from retired Justice Biswas, West Bengal Health Recruitment Board Secretary Narendranath Dutta and Calcutta High Court lawyer Ayon Bandyopadhyay will also be on the committee.

The court directed the committee to complete its investigation and submit a report within the next four weeks. The fate of the employees will depend on this report, the High Court has clarified in the directive.

According to court sources, in 2018, the West Bengal Health Recruitment Board issued a notification for the recruitment of 725 vacant posts of medical technologists under the state health department. In 2019, documents were verified and interviewed. The plaintiff claims he had passed his MSc. Despite this, he was given 12 marks for his one-year diploma degree in medical technology. However, some candidates who had passed BSc have been given 15 marks by showing their ability in lab technology.

Seeing such discrepancies in the numbers, the plaintiff first filed a case with the State Administrative Tribunal or SAT. But SAT dismissed the case in February of this year. He then approached the High Court.

It may be mentioned that the Calcutta High Court this week also issued an interim stay on the recruitment of firefighters on corruption charges. The court has suspended the recruitment of about 1,500 vacancies in the fire department. In this case, too, the job seekers first filed a case with the SAT.

But they approached the High Court after the SAT dismissed the allegation. According to them, the appointment has been made by publishing the merit list without recognising the certificate of conservation. There have even been allegations of giving jobs to general category job seekers on a scheduled cast quota.