NEW DELHI: In a big blow to the Mamata Banerjee government, the Supreme Court on Thursday declared the entire recruitment process to the post of teachers and other staff in schools in West Bengal as "vitiated" and "tainted beyond repair".
A bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar upheld the Calcutta High Court's April 22, 2024 judgment, which cancelled the entire selection process.
The court, however, made modifications on certain directions.
On May 7, 2024, the apex court had stayed the High Court order, which cancelled the appointment of over 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staff, in state-run and state-aided schools of West Bengal.
Reading out excerpts of the judgment, the CJI said, the entire selection process was vitiated by manipulation and fraud and it was beyond repair.
The court said the very sanctity and credibility of the process were denuded, so there was no valid ground to interfere with the order terminating the services of the tainted candidates.
"Since the appointments are by fraud and cheating, we see no ground to interfere," the bench said.
The court also said the candidates, who were previously employed elsewhere, would be allowed to join back to their past posts. The court asked the state government to initiate a fresh process of selection within a period of three months.
West Bengal's then Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and others were arrested in the investigation carried out by the CBI on a direction of the High Court and huge cash were also recovered.
The West Bengal government challenged the validity of the HC's order invalidating the appointment of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff made by the School Service Commission (SSC) in state-run and state-aided schools.
The high court had said the CBI would undertake further investigations with regard to the persons involved in the state government approving the creation of a supernumerary post to accommodate illegal appointments.
The state government claimed the HC failed to appreciate the ramification of cancelling the entire selection process, leading to straightaway termination of teaching and non-teaching staff from service with immediate effect, without giving sufficient time to the petitioner state to deal with such an exigency, rendering the education system at a standstill.
The HC's division bench had ordered cancellation of all appointments made through the recruitment process of State Level Selection Test-2016 (SLST) in government and aided schools, declaring it as "null and void". It had also directed the selected candidates to refund the salaries paid to them.
