BREAKING| Supreme Court To Deliver Its Judgment Tomorrow On West Bengal School Service Commission Recruitment Scam

The Supreme Court will tomorrow pronounce its decision on the batch of pleas challenging the Calcutta High Court's order setting aside the appointments by the West Bengal School Selection Commission for over 25,000 teaching and non-teaching posts in government schools in 2016.

The bench of CJI Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar heard the matter. The SSC appointments had come under the scanner due to the infamous cash-for-jobs recruitment scam.The Court had reserved the judgment on February 10. 

It may be noted that the Top Court had earlier passed an interim order protecting the appointments made in pursuance of the alleged West Bengal SSC recruitment scam, stating that those appointees whose appointments are found to be illegal shall be liable to refund their salaries.

The top court has also permitted the CBI to continue its probe to determine the officials involved but precluded the agency from taking any coercive steps.

The High Court had directed CBI to undertake further investigation and interrogate all persons who had received appointments after the expiry of the panel and after submitting blank OMR sheets. The state had also asked the central probe agency to undertake further investigations concerning the persons involved in the State Government, approving the creation of supernumerary posts to accommodate illegal appointments.

The interim protection was first granted by the Supreme Court on November 9, 2023 in another case (Achinta Kumar Mondal vs Laxmi Tunga).

Background

On April 22, the Calcutta High Court had invalidated these jobs across government and aided schools. The jobs came under the scanner due to the infamous cash-for-jobs recruitment scam.

The State has argued that the High Court, instead of segregating the valid appointments from the invalid ones, has erroneously set aside the 2016 selection process entirely. It has also been averred that this will affect around 25,000 teaching and non-teaching staff in the State.

It has also been pleaded that the High Court solely relied upon the oral arguments without the support of affidavits. Further, it has been argued that the High Court has acted in utter disregard of the fact that the same will result in a huge vacuum in the State Schools unless a new selection process is completed. The State has emphasized that this will adversely impact the students given that the new academic session is approaching.

The State has also assailed the impugned order on the ground that it ordered the SSC to conduct a new selection process for declared vacancies within two weeks of the upcoming election results without acknowledging the understaffing issue in schools.

Case Details : THE STATE OF WEST BENGAL vs. BAISHAKHI BHATTACHARYYA (CHATTERJEE) SLP(C) No. 009586 - / 2024 and connected matters