India's Supreme Court upholds dismissal of 25,000 West Bengal teachers

Duba: The Supreme Court has upheld the Calcutta High Court order, cancelling the appointment of more than 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staff under the West Bengal School Service Commission, in a massive loss of face to the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal.

Hours after the order, Mamata Banerjee said she does not accept the Supreme Court judgment personally, but her government will implement it and repeat the selection process. She also questioned if Opposition BJP and CPM wanted Bengal’s education system to collapse.

“As a citizen of this country, I have every right, and I cannot accept this judgment, with due respect to the judges. I am expressing my opinion from a humanitarian perspective. Don’t misinform or create confusion,” she told the media. The government, she said, accepts the ruling and has already asked the School Service Commission to repeat the recruitment process.

The Supreme Court today upheld the Calcutta High Court order, cancelling the appointment of more than 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staff under the West Bengal School Service Commission. The Supreme Court said the entire selection process is “vitiated by manipulation and fraud” and its credibility and legitimacy “denuded”.

The Supreme Court said the entire selection process is “vitiated by manipulation and fraud” and its credibility and legitimacy “denuded”.

The bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar said that it saw no reason to interfere with the High Court order. The court said the appointments resulted from cheating and are thus fraudulent.

The court asked the state government to complete a fresh selection process within three months. Those who clear this fresh process would not be required to return the salary they drew since their appointment in 2016. But the ones who don’t must pay back. The court has given relaxation to persons with disabilities and said they may continue in their present posting.

Segregation

The Mamata Banerjee government had challenged the high court order in the Supreme Court,and pressed for a segregation of tainted and untainted candidates.

At the centre of the row are supernumerary posts created by the state government. More than 23 lakh candidates had appeared for the state-level selection test in 2016. The number of vacant posts was 24,640, but 25,753 appointment letters were issued. It is alleged that these supernumeric posts provided room for illegal recruitment.

Irregularities in the teachers’ recruitment had opened a can of worms for the Trinamool Congress government. Several of its top leaders, including former education minister and a trusted lieutenant of Mamata Banerjee, are in jail in connection with the case.