In an exemplary punishment for holding back the salary of a teacher for two years, the Calcutta High Court, on Friday, barred the headmaster of a state-run school from entering school premises till June 10.
What’s more, to ensure that the guilty headmaster cannot enter the school till the set deadline, a single judge bench of Justice Avijit Gangopadhyay has even directed the local police to post two armed personnel at the school gate.
Sheikh Safi Alam, the headmaster of Golapbari Pallimongal High School in Barasat sub-division of North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal is convicted of withholding the payment of his junior colleague, Raju Jana, a teacher of the same school, for without any reason.
The teacher filed a petition against Alam alleging that the latter had held back his salary for two years from 2018 to 2020. The case continued for a long time and Friday was the date of the final hearing.
Justice Gangopadhyay ordered Alam to be personally present at the court. During the final hearing, Justice Gangopadhyay asked Alam whether he had any authority to hold back the salary of a teacher of the school where he is the headmaster. However, Alam did not have any answer to the question.
The judge then pronounced his verdict, barring the errant headmaster from entering the school premises till June 10 and also asked the local police station to ensure that by posting two armed guards at the school gate till that time.
Justice Gangopadhyay, recently came to the headlines after he ordered state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee to appear for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) within hours for integration pertaining to recruitment irregularities in West Bengal School Service Commission.
Although that order was stayed a division bench on the same day, but by that time, Justice Gangopadhyay had attracted ire of the Trinamool Congress-affiliated lawyers of the high court, who boycotted his bench for 21 days.
With inputs from IANS