Shillong, Nov 1: The Supreme Court has issued notice to former Education Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh and two retired officials in the education scam case, after the CBI challenged the acquittal order of then Chief Justice of the High Court of Meghalaya, IP Mukerji, a day before his retirement.
A hearing was held last month, and the apex court issued notices for the response of Ampareen and others after a special leave petition (criminal) was filed by the CBI.
Through the special leave petition, the CBI is questioning, as to why the high court didn’t call for records from the trial court before quashing the FIR and the trial, as the direction to initiate CBI inquiry came from the same high court, sources said.
Moreover, the high court did not ask the lower court to speed up the process of trial or reduce the number of witnesses, without affecting the trial.
The order of SC below
The single bench headed by the chief justice had, on September 4, 2005, quashed the FIR registered against Ampareen, former Director of Elementary and Mass Education, JD Sangma and former Deputy Director Ameka Lyngdoh in connection with alleged manipulations in the recruitment process in 2008 for lower primary school assistant teachers.
The allegation was that score sheets were manipulated to favour certain candidates.
The selection process was for Shillong, Jowai, Amlarem, Tura and Dadenggre.
According to the high court’s order, the prosecution failed to establish a prima facie case against the accused.
However, the stand of the CBI is that the charge sheet against the accused was filed in 2020 based on evidence, including the use of white ink to erase marks, and the Special Judge (CBI) dismissed the applications of the accused for discharge in 2022. The trial had been in progress when the high court quashed the proceedings. The case was registered by the CBI in 2018 based on the FIR lodged in 2011.
The high court, however, had observed undue delay in completing the trial and used the inherent power of the court to dispose of the matter.
“At the rate it is proceeding, the examination of all the witnesses might take up the entirety of the remaining life of the accused. Therefore, exercising power under Section 227 of the Code read with Section 482, especially the part which deals with the power of the court to prevent abuse of the process of any court or to secure the ends of justice, I set aside the impugned order dated 23rd August, 2022 passed in Special (CBI) Case No. 2 of 2020 by the learned Special Judge (CBI), East Khasi Hills district, Shillong. The charges against the accused A1, A2 and A3 are quashed. The entire criminal proceedings are hereby quashed. Each of the accused 1, 2 and 3 are hereby discharged.
Crl. Petn. Nos. 36 of 2023, 37 of 2023, 70 and 71 of 2023 are allowed,” said the order of the single bench headed by the then chief justice of the high court.
