HC reserves order on Ajay Chautala's parole plea

The Delhi High Court on Monday reserved its order on plea for parole sought by Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Ajay Singh Chautala, who is presently in jail in connection with a teacher recruitment scam.

Earlier, the Delhi High Court had ordered the release of former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala on parole for four weeks.

Former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, his MLA son Ajay, and three other officials were sentenced to ten years in prison in 2013 by a special CBI court on charges of illegally recruiting over 3,000 teachers in the state by using forged documents. The scam was widely known as the JBT Scam since it involved the recruitment of junior basic teachers.

The Haryana Government's former director of primary education, Sanjeev Kumar, a 1989 batch IAS officer, had filed a writ in the Supreme Court alleging that the then Om Prakash Chautala Government had resorted to corrupt practices while recruiting 3208 Junior Basic Trained (JBT) teachers in 2000.

The apex court had refused to entertain their appeals against their conviction for committing irregularities in the recruitment of 3,032 junior basic trained (JBT) teachers.

They filed review petitions following this. The petitions were slated for a decision on January 20 but this was deferred at their instance. They have pleaded for permission to file revised review petitions.

On January 22, 2013, a trial court here had sentenced 55 accused in the case. Among those convicted were 82-year-old Chautala's then political adviser Sher Singh Badshami, the then Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Vidya Dhar, IAS, and then Primary Education Director Sanjiv Kumar, besides 50 others.