The Delhi High Court today granted three weeks parole to former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, serving a 10-year jail term in teachers' recruitment scam case, for or maintaining "social ties".
Justice Vipin Sanghi ordered Chautala's release for three weeks without restraining his movement out of Delhi, and said that the relief is granted to "re-establish his ties with the society and the family members".
The court's order came on Chautala's petition seeking six months' parole to allow him "return to the mainstream".
The INLD leader, through his counsel Amit Sahni, has said that the Delhi government's December 14 decision denying him relief was passed in "an extremely unfair manner upon flimsy grounds".
82-year-old Chautala also said that he is "polio-affected since his birth and has permanent disability of 60 per cent".
He said he was on bail during the trial and was released on parole, but he has never misused the same.
Chautala, his son Ajay Chautala and three others are serving 10-years jail term in the case.
The Supreme Court in August 2015 had dismissed Chautalas' appeals against the high court's verdict upholding their conviction and sentence of 10 years awarded by a trial court in the junior basic trained (JBT) teachers recruitment scam case.
The high court had on March 5, 2015 upheld the 10-year jail terms awarded to the two Chautalas and three others, saying, "The overwhelming evidence showed spine-chilling state of affairs in the country."
The father-son duo and 53 others, including two IAS officers, were among 55 persons convicted on January 16, 2013 by the trial court for illegally recruiting 3,206 JBT teachers in Haryana in 2000.
CBSE to offer psychological counselling to exam-weary students
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New Delhi, Feb 6 (IANS) The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will provide counselling to de-stress students during exams, the Board announced on Monday.
The counselling will be provided over the phone to students of all CBSE affiliated government and private schools. The service will be available to CBSE affiliated schools located abroad as well.
The helpline will start functioning on February 9 and will continue till April 29. Counselling is open to parents of the students too.
A total of 90 Principals, trained counsellors from CBSE affiliated government and private schools, a few psychologists and special educators will participate in tele-counselling and address exam related psychological problems of the students.
Of these, 68 will be available in India, and 22 abroad in Nepal, Japan, Saudi Arabia (Al-Khobar, Jeddah), Oman, the UAE (Dubai, Sharjah, Ras Al-Khaimah), Kuwait, Singapore and Qatar.
This will be the 20th consecutive year when the CBSE will be giving tele-counselling to students during exams.
The students can dial a toll-free number 1800 11 8004 from any part of the country to connect to the counsellors between 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Four special educators will help the differently-abled students.
Online counselling will also be available at counselling.cecbse@gmail.com.