Kolkata, Feb 28 Criticising the West Bengal government for prolonged delay in granting sanction for prosecution, the Calcutta High Court has granted bail to former School Service Commission advisor SP Sinha in a money laundering case linked to the school jobs scam.
Granting conditional bail on Friday, Justice Jay Sengupta directed Sinha to furnish a bond of Rs 1 lakh with two sureties of like amount each and to surrender his passport before the special PMLA court.
Noting that large sums were allegedly collected from school job aspirants on the promise of securing government posts of assistant teachers, the court observed, "The allegations are perhaps even more heinous than commission of offences by chit fund operators."
While hearing the bail plea, the judge said the court "cannot but refer to the intrinsically connected issue of sanction for prosecution".
"It would indeed be antithetic to the cause of justice if all the accused gradually get bail due to prolonged custody, but the trial/proceeding gets stalled for want of sanction to be given by the State," the court observed.
The court termed the state’s submissions on the issue as "rather evasive and nonchalant", especially in view of the alleged suffering of numerous victims, and described the situation as "unfortunate".
Justice Sengupta said it is expected that the state would decide the question of grant of sanction for prosecution in accordance with law and at the earliest.
Observing that thousands of jobs were cancelled and that lakhs of aspirants were denied proper opportunity, the court noted that the alleged offences were of "humongous proportion".
The Supreme Court had in April 2025 cancelled the appointments of over 25,000 teachers and staff recruited by the SSC due to irregularities in the recruitment process.
Drawing a distinction with chit fund cases, the court said that in those matters, offences are committed by private individuals without any official role in government.
"Here, the allegation is that by abusing their position as public servants, such serious offences were committed, which led to untold misery for so many," the judge observed.
Sinha has been in custody for one year and eight months in connection with the money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The court directed the trial court to make all endeavours to proceed expeditiously without granting unnecessary adjournments.
Sinha, along with former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee, has already been granted bail by the Supreme Court in the related CBI case.
While opposing the bail plea, the ED alleged that Sinha was actively involved in large-scale corruption in recruitment and laundered the proceeds of crime through properties acquired in his name, his wife’s name and that of a close associate.
Counsel for Sinha submitted that he is 74 years old, has retired from all posts, and does not hold any position of influence. They also contended that he cannot be held responsible for the delay in grant of sanction by the state government.
