The Supreme Court today issued a notice on a bail plea filed by former West Bengal Education Minister and current MLA Partha Chatterjee in connection with the CBI case linked to the state's cash-for-jobs scam. 

The order was passed by a bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh. 

The case pertains to allegations of unlawful recruitment of Assistant Teachers under the West Bengal Board of Primary Education.

In 2022, a corruption case was registered, resulting in the arrests of several key officials, including Dr. Subires Bhattacharyya (Chairman of the West Bengal Central School Service Commission), Ashok Kumar Saha (Secretary of WBCSSC), Dr. Kalyanmoy Ganguly (President of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education), Dr. Santi Prasad Sinha (Secretary of WBBSE), and Partha Chatterjee (then Minister-in-Charge of Higher Education and School Education Department, West Bengal).

The accused were charged under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for allegedly misusing their public offices to demand bribes in exchange for jobs within the department.

Seeking bail, Partha Chatterjee and other accused initially approached the Calcutta High Court. However, in November 2024, a division bench delivered a split verdict on their bail applications. While one judge granted bail to all accused, the other denied bail to Chatterjee and four senior officials from the education department—Subires Bhattacharyya, Kalyanmoy Gangopadhyay, Ashok Kumar Saha, and Shanti Prasad Sinha.

The matter was then placed before a single bench, which denied bail to Partha Chatterjee and the four other officials.  

Challenging both the split verdict and the single bench order denying bail, Chatterjee moved the Supreme Court.  

In December 2024, the Supreme Court granted him bail in the related money laundering case, effective from February 1, 2025.

Case Title: PARTHA CHATTERJEE Versus CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, SLP(Crl) No. 2471-2472/2025