HC told: Ex-chief of Bengal primary education board decided to destroy OMR sheets of TET 2014

The court on Tuesday asked the board to produce copies of a resolution that states which agency had been assigned the responsibility to develop the OMR sheets for TET 2014, which was held a year later

Tapas Ghosh, Subhankar Chowdhury, TT, Calcutta, 10.07.24 : A lawyer representing the state primary education board told Calcutta High Court on Tuesday that the former president of the board, Manik Bhattacharya, had decided to destroy copies of OMR sheets of TET 2014, keeping the board members in the dark.

The lawyer said this to Justice Rajasekhar Mantha who last Friday ordered CBI to consult cyber experts for retrieving the digitised version of the OMR (optical mark recognition) sheets.

The court on Tuesday asked the board to produce copies of a resolution that states which agency had been assigned the responsibility to develop the OMR sheets for TET 2014, which was held a year later.

TET is held to screen candidates to appoint them as assistant teachers in government-aided primary schools.

Bhattacharya had been arrested by the CBI in October 2022 following his alleged involvement in recruitment-related irregularities. He is still behind bars.

Saikat Banerjee, the board’s lawyer, told the court: “Hard copies of OMRshave been completely destroyed. This was donewithout consulting the members of the board. Although it was an illegal act, this was done at the behest of the former board president Manik Bhattacharya.”

“He did not even share with the board members any copy of the resolution that approved the destruction of the OMRs. As the board president he took decisions on his own,” he said.

Justice Mantha said the next hearing would be onFriday.

“The primary board has to produce copies of the resolution by Friday,” said Justice Mantha on Tuesday.

In September 2022, then Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who was hearing the case related to alleged irregularities in appointment, asked the CBI to find out under which law Bhattacharya had destroyed the OMR sheets of 12.5 lakh copies of TET 2014. Gangopadhyay gave liberty to the agency to arrest Bhattacharya.

Bhattacharya was arrested a month later.

The case is being heard after a lawyer representing the candidates, who have alleged irregularities in the recruitment process, said they wanted the OMR sheets of all candidates to be produced in the court.

Around 59,000 teachers had been appointed in two phases based on the TET.

Since the OMR sheets have been destroyed, the court is insisting on tracking down the digitized versions of the sheets. Justice Mantha had on June 6 said a hearing into the case of alleged irregularities could not proceed if the hard disk was not produced.

“If the data cannot be retrieved by the CBI, the court would be forced to cancel the entire appointment process...,” the judge had said in April.