The Supreme Court has upheld the Calcutta High Court’s decision to cancel the appointment of over 25,000 teachers and staff recruited through the West Bengal School Service Commission, dealing a major setback to the Mamata Banerjee government. The court ruled that the hiring process was fraudulent and manipulated, making it unfair and invalid.

A bench led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar stated that there was no reason to overturn the High Court’s ruling, as the appointments were based on cheating.

However, the Supreme Court modified one part of the order. While the High Court had directed the dismissed employees to return their salaries drawn since 2016, the Supreme Court ruled that they could keep their past earnings but would receive nothing further.

The court also instructed the West Bengal government to conduct a fresh selection process within three months. Candidates who were previously working in other state government departments will have the option to return to their old jobs.

The court specified that only candidates with invalid appointments would be required to return their salaries. Initially, the Calcutta High Court had ordered all 25,000 affected teachers and staff to repay their earnings with 12% annual interest.

The Supreme Court also allowed the CBI to continue its investigation into candidates who were appointed without being shortlisted. However, it instructed the agency not to take any strict action against the candidates or West Bengal government officials during the probe.

Senior advocate Maninder Singh, representing petitioners who supported the Calcutta High Court’s decision, argued that when fraud and irregularities in a selection process are extensive, the entire recruitment should be scrapped, regardless of how long the selected candidates have been employed as teachers. He cited past Supreme Court rulings to back this stance.

On the other hand, senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, appearing for the West Bengal School Selection Commission (WBSSC), claimed that the CBI investigation had identified 5,485 tainted candidates, which is about 25% of the total recruits. He argued that the corrupt candidates could be separated, allowing the rest to retain their jobs with the Supreme Court’s validation.

Supporting this view, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the West Bengal government, admitted that irregularities had occurred, but insisted they were not as widespread as the Calcutta High Court had concluded.
Several top lawyers, including A M Singhvi, Mukul Rohatgi, P S Patwalia, C S Vaidyanathan, Indira Jaising, and Dushyant Dave, defended the jobs of untainted teachers.

During the arguments, Dushyant Dave raised a political angle, pointing out that the CBI probe was ordered by a High Court judge who later resigned, joined a political party, and was elected to the Lok Sabha on that party’s ticket.

 

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