In a jolt to the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal, the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Calcutta High Court’s decision to annul the appointments of 25,000 teaching and non-teaching staff by the state School Service Commission (WBSSC) in 2016 over an alleged school jobs-for-cash scam.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice PV Sanjiv Kumar refused to interfere with the High Court’s verdict, observing that the appointments were vitiated by fraud.
“We have gone through the facts. Regarding the findings of this case, the entire selection process is vitiated by manipulation and fraud and credibility and legitimacy are denuded. No reason to interfere. Tainted candidates must be terminated, a nd appointments were resultant of cheating and thus fraud," the Court said in its judgment, Bar and Bench reported.
The court, however, said that the candidates who have already been appointed need not hand over the salary they have received so far.
The bench also ordered that a new selection process should be finished within three months.
“The fresh selection process can also have relaxations for untainted candidates," the court said.
BJP leader Amit Malviya called the Supreme Court’s ruling a “crushing defeat" for Mamata. It was a crushing defeat for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as the Supreme Court upheld the Calcutta High Court’s decision invalidating nearly 25,000 teaching and non-teaching staff appointments made by the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) in 2016. The Court concurred with the High Court’s finding that the selection process was vitiated by fraud and irreparably tainted. Mamata Banerjee’s close aide, Partha Chatterjee—who served as the Education Minister and was caught with wads of cash—is already in jail for his role in the scam. The Chief Minister, under whose watch this massive fraud ruined the careers of thousands of youths, must also be held accountable and face trial," Malviya posted on X.
The Bengal jobs-for-cash scam relates to the illegal hiring of teachers and staff in the primary and secondary schools during the 2016 recruitment process.
In 2016, more than 23 lakh candidates took exams for 25,000 job openings. However, later complaints were raised to the Calcutta High Court that several candidates were given jobs unfairly as their answer sheets were wrongly checked.
In April last year, the Calcutta High Court cancelled all such appointments and said that it was unclear how the 23 lakh answer sheets were checked. The court also ordered a re-evaluation of all of them.
The High Court had declared all such recruitment invalid and ordered the employees to return their salaries. The court also directed a CBI investigation into the matter.
