Mita Mukherjee

Bringing a big setback to the Mamata Banerjee government in Bengal, the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Calcutta High Court’s decision to cancel nearly 25,000 jobs of teaching and non-teaching employees of state-funded schools, declaring the entire recruitment process “ tainted” and lacking credibility.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar observed that the 2016 recruitment process was marred with multiple irregularities. The court directed the state government to conduct fresh recruitment within three months maintaining transparency and said eligible candidates from the cancelled panel be allowed to reappear.

However, the court said that those who have already been employed need not return the salaries paid to them so far. In the fresh recruitment process relaxations can be given for untainted candidates in respect of certain factors like age criteria.

After the announcement of the judgment chief minister Mamata Banerjee said at a press conference that she and her government officials studied the judgment in detail and they accepted the court verdict. But according to her she had some opinions about the court ruling and she assured that her government will take steps to conduct the fresh recruitment as directed by the court. She also claimed that this was a conspiracy hatched by the BJP and CPIM to dismantle and disrupt the education system in Bengal.

She also questioned how many times and to what extent punishment would be meted out in this case. “How many times will one crime be punished? We didn’t say anything when our former education minister was taken to custody. The SSC is an autonomous body… We don’t interfere in its activities… How many people should suffer from one case… 25,000 teachers have lost jobs. But several lakhs of people will be affected… The BJP and CPIM should have thought that several lakh innocent people would be punished with the ones tainted. We will find a way to solve the crisis…. Banerjee said.

The Opposition including BJP and CPIM came with scathing attacks against the TMC government after the announcement of the verdict.

According to the top court the OMR sheets and answer sheets of many candidates had gone  missing and it was impossible to separate the deserving candidates from those who got jobs fraudulently.

“ We find no reason to interfere with the decision of the High Court that the services of tainted candidates and their appointment be terminated. Since their appointment was by fraud, this amounts to cheating,” the court noted.

 In April 2024, the Calcutta High Court had dismissed 25,753 appointments made through the 2016 recruitment process saying that there had been tampering of OMR sheets and manipulation in ranking. The High Court’s judgment had raised questions about the credibility of the recruitment process.

Controversies had centered around the school jobs – for – cash through the recruitment conducted by the West Bengal School Service Commission on the basis of which the 25,753 candidates were appointed, following large scale allegations that jobs were given to undeserving candidates in exchange of bribe. Nearly 23 lakh candidates had appeared in the recruitment tests.

Following the High Court order in April last year more than 100 appeals were filed in Supreme Court against the cancellation of the jobs. An appeal was also filed by the state government saying that the cancellation of so many teaching jobs would create a severe crisis of teachers which would affect the students.

In May last year, the Supreme Court had stayed the High Court order but allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to proceed with the investigations in the case

Former education minister Partha Chatterjee, MLA Manik Bhattacharya and Jiban Krishna Saha were arrested in connection with the scam and are in custody.    

Also read: West Bengal School Jobs Scam: Entire Process Tainted, SC Told