Kolkata, June 20 (IANS) The Calcutta High Court on Friday held that the West Bengal government’s proposed scheme to pay a stipend to non-teaching staff losing jobs following an order from the Supreme Court in April this year amounted to “fraudulent activity, cheating, and corruption” as it stayed the measure for now.

A single-judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha made this observation while putting an interim stay restraining from making payments for providing stipends for the non-teaching staff under the scheme christened “West Bengal Livelihood and Special Security Interim Scheme”.

A detailed study of the order, which was made available later in the evening, showed how the single-judge bench contended the payment of stipend to the non-teaching staff violated the Supreme Court order in April that not only terminated the jobs but also ordered for refund of salaries paid to candidates “tainted” by getting jobs through fraudulent means.

“Proceeding to provide payment to the tainted candidates instead of proceeding to obtain a refund of the payment received by them, calls for interference by the court,” read the order, a copy of which is available with IANS.

Justice Sinha also observed that it was the duty of the state government to honour the order of the Supreme Court in April this year.

“The law laid down by the highest Court of the land is binding upon all, and everybody will be bound to follow the same, no matter how unpalatable it is. The faith and trust of the public in the judicial system cannot be permitted to be eroded. The act of the state respondents in formulating the impugned scheme, prima facie, appears to overreach the order passed by the High Court affirmed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court,” the order reads.

In the order, the single-judge bench has questioned the rationale of the state government behind spending money from the public exchequer for those who would not give any service in return to the state government in exchange for the stipend paid to them.

“By the impugned scheme, the state is not making any provision for securing work. The scheme is also not providing any public assistance to any unemployed candidate. On the contrary, it appears that the state is providing financial assistance to candidates whose job was terminated by the order of the court, as the same was the result of cheating,” read the order copy.

Justice Sinha also observed that the state government would be obliged to make payments to persons for rendering their services to the state. She stated that paying persons gratuitously who were not serving the state but were either sitting at home or engaged elsewhere was not acceptable to the court.

“Permitting the State to proceed with the Scheme will tacitly support fraudulent activity, cheating, and corruption,” read the order.

–IANS

src/vd