Panel to investigate malpractice in Teachers Recruitment Board exam

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Wednesday appointed retired Justice and a retired Inspector General of Police (IG) as a committee to investigate allegations of widespread malpractice that occurred during the recruitment of 814 computer instructors, through Teachers Recruitment Board in 2019.

Justice (retired) N Authinathan, who has been appointed by the single judge as a one-man committee to go into the probe, shall appoint a retired police officer, not below the rank of an IG, who is without any political leanings, so that the committee comprises two members,” ordered the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy.

The court passed the direction on an appeal petition moved by the State government challenging a single-judge order that called for a probe into the matters. The issue pertains to the alleged mass copying that had taken place in three of the examination centres — KSR College of Engineering, Namakkal, Annai College of Engineering, Thanjavur and Kongunadu College of Engineering, Tiruchy, submitted counsel Richardson Wilson. The bench, hearing the submissions, expanded the probe in all the centres.

The bench in its directions said that the committee appointed will undertake a study on how the examination was conducted at various centres. It will also be open to the committee to seek CCTV footage. In the event of the footage not being available from some of the centres, the committee must seek an explanation for it.

It will also be open to the committee to speak to the examinees at the centres to clarify the entire doubts of the court. The committee was also ordered to conclude the exercise within six weeks from the date of the constitution thereof, and ensure that the report is filed by April 30.