The Supreme Court quashed a 2016 recruiting procedure, claiming that it was tainted by fraud and manipulation, and gave the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) a week to submit the list of teachers whose hiring it had halted.
Following a petition by the instructors of Classes 11–12 who were deemed eligible to participate in the new hiring process, the new decree was issued. A May 30 WBSSC notification was contested by the petitioners, who referred to it as “ambiguous.” They claimed that the state was allowing the disqualified applicants to sit for the new exam.
On Thursday, a panel of judges Sanjay Kumar and Satish Chandra Sharma questioned the state on whether it had made the list of compromised candidates public. Speaking on behalf of the WBSSC, senior lawyer Kalyan Banerjee claimed that it had, but he later told the court that it hadn’t. The court objected to the shift in stance and requested that the commission furnish the list in order to prevent these applicants from being hired following the test next month.
Banerjee consented to release the list. In its ruling, the court acknowledged this and stated that the list of contaminated candidates would be made public within seven days. The untainted teachers’ representatives, senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy and advocate Abhijeet Upadhyay, told the court that the May 30 notification set the minimum educational requirement and age restriction that should not be applicable to petitioners allowed to participate in the new hiring process.
The Supreme Court allowed the unblemished instructors to stay in their positions until December 31 on April 17. In consideration of the interests of the pupils who might otherwise be impacted by the cancellation of the recruitment of more than 25,000 teachers, it instructed the state to finish the hiring process by that time.
On October 8, the court scheduled a follow-up hearing and instructed the WBSSC to submit its counter-affidavit to the petition. The petitioners have sent in their applications for the new hiring, Banerjee informed the court. According to him, the teacher written exams will take place on September 7 and 14.
The WBSSC stated that 15,800 untarnished applicants were qualified for the new hiring procedure in a different case that is still pending in court. Guruswamy informed the court that the state administration received the tainted list from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which looked into the claimed fraud in the hiring process.
Guruswamy informed the court that the state administration received the tainted list from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which looked into the claimed fraud in the hiring process. The anomalies were pointed out by the Supreme Court in its ruling on April 3. “The selection process has been severely damaged and partially redeemable due to widespread manipulations and frauds, as well as the attempted cover-up,” it had stated. “The selection’s legitimacy and credibility are undermined.”
For a spot on the merit list, aspirants allegedly bribed leaders connected to the ruling Trinamool Congress, according to the CBI. It further stated that in certain instances, a few of the chosen applicants had turned in blank response papers. Additionally, the CBI identified arbitrary and unlawful rank-jumping.
The state’s review petition against the order from April 3 was denied by the court on August 5. “The court was fully aware that invalidating such untainted appointments would cause heartburn and agony, but maintaining the integrity of the selection process is crucial and must naturally be given the highest priority.”