West Bengal’s minister of state for school education has been rapped on the knuckles by Calcutta High Court on Friday in what appears to be the severest indictment yet of the system in place. The Bench (coram: Abhijit Gangopadhyay, J) has ordered the dismissal of Ankita Adhikary, teacher of a government school in Cooch Behar, a post to which she was appointed two years ago through the School Service Commission. The facts are simply stated. She has been ordered to return the amount she received as salary since the day of her appointment and deposit the money with the Registrar General of the High Court.

The other order bars her from entering the school where she had taught. In yet another order, even her identity has been debunked. The court observed that Ankita should never be able to identify herself as a teacher for the rest of her life as she had “committed cheating in a noble profession like teaching”. The nub of the crisis must be that the appointment has met an ignoble end, almost reducing the motto of “advancement of learning” to sheer tosh.

The profession that produces doctors and engineers has been cheated, Justice Gangopadhyay observed in court. When liberty becomes licence, judicial intervention is near. Arguably by exploiting the fact that she is the daughter of a minister, Ankita did not appear for the mandatory interview, which is integral to the overall evaluation. No reason for the abstention was filed before the CBI or the High Court. Small wonder she has been charged with cheating, criminal conspiracy and corruption in the FIR lodged by the CBI on Thursday in connection with her recruitment through the School Service Commission. Going by the CBI’s allegation, Ankita’s name was inserted illegally in the waiting list for would-be assistant teachers in political science for classes XI and XII, superseding others with higher marks. It bears recall that a not dissimilar fiddle had plagued the recruitment of primary teachers a couple of years ago. Candidates who did not figure in the merit list were recommended for appointment allegedly at the then school education minister’s behest. Those who had actually cleared the selection process were thus shortchanged and deprived of careers.

According to the complaint filed with the CBI, Ankita had secured 61 in the first state-level selection test in 2016. But she did not appear in the personality test. Other candidates who had secured higher marks were not appointed. It is a measure of the fear lurking behind such direly irregular appointments that the High Court has ordered the state police to provide security to the complainant. Calcutta High Court has spoken bravely and well.