SC STAYS ORDER CANCELLING 25K JOBS IN BENGAL

The Supreme Court on Tuesday protected the services of nearly 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staff employed with government and aided schools in West Bengal by staying an order of the Calcutta high court which set aside their appointment over severe irregularities in their selection as part of the teacher recruitment scam probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

A bench headed by chief justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud permitted the CBI to continue its probe, without taking any coercive action, into the alleged irregularities which allowed persons with blank OMR sheets and those outside the panel of selected names to get selected in the recruitment process conducted by the West Bengal School Selection Commission (SSC) in 2016.

The court further clarified that the protection granted to the teachers will be subject to the condition that if their appointment is ultimately found to be illegal, they shall be liable to refund their salary from the date of this order till the final judgment in their case.

In the same matter last week, the top court stayed that part of the high court’s April 22 order permitting CBI to probe West Bengal ministers and government officials in connection with a related decision of creating super numerary posts to accommodate the illegal appointments. The Supreme Court continued that order for the time being and posted the matter for further hearing

Tuesday’s order came as a relief for the Mamata Banerjee government, which is facing the heat in the teacher recruitment scam probed by CBI following orders passed by the Calcutta high court. The state appealed against the April 22 order on the grounds that the sudden termination of 25,000 teaching and non-teaching staff will adversely affect students because arranging for such a large number of teachers within a short period will not be feasible. It further argued that even going by the CBI investigation, about 8,000 appointments were found to be illegal and setting aside all appointments was therefore uncalled for.

Welcoming the order, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said in a post on X, “I am really very happy and mentally relaxed on receipt of justice at the highest Court of the land. Congratulations to the entire teaching fraternity and my humble regards to the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India.”

Examining the appeal, along with separate petitions filed by the affected teachers, the top court heard arguments for nearly four hours to ascertain possibility of segregating the tainted candidates from the rest of the lot.

The bench, also comprising justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said, “The issue merits analysis whether the appointment that suffers from taint can be specifically segregated. If such a process is possible, it will be unfair to set aside the 25,000 appointments.” Assuming such segregation is possible, modalities to be followed for this purpose have to be determined. As this would require elaborate arguments, the bench posted the matter for further hearing in July.

The state, represented by senior advocates Rakesh Dwivedi and Neeraj Kishan Kaul, pointed out that the appointments were protected by the top court in an earlier order passed by the top court in a related proceedings on November 9, 2023, when the bench had directed the high court to expeditiously decide the issue concerning the future of teachers.

Continuing the same protection, the bench said, “We continue the ad-interim protection of November 9, 2023 subject to the stipulation that if persons found to have been appointed illegally and have continued as a result of the present order, shall refund their entire salary from the date of this order till the final judgment.”

In doing so, the court observed, “It is obvious some appointments are tainted. We cannot pass a blanket order staying all terminations.” At the same time, the bench was alive to the impact of the high court’s decision on the livelihood of 25,000 persons who have continued in service for so many years.

“Court cannot be unmindful of the impact of setting aside large number of assistant teachers for Classes 9-12 on students, which should be the consequence if the HC judgment is to be upheld,” said the bench.

The West Bengal SSC, which is in the centre of controversy, faced flak from the top court for the manner in which the selections were made, throwing to wind all legal procedures and rules. Reminding the state agency about the gross irregularities found during the CBI probe, the bench remarked, “How do you displace these findings by CBI? This is a systemic fraud. Is this the way you deal with public employment. People will lose faith in the system.”

Senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, appearing for the commission, submitted, “We are not defending the illegal appointments. But according to us, there are nearly 19,000 appointments which are genuine. “

The court said, “Government jobs are so scarce. Today, public jobs are so valued as people aspire to get one. Those from lower economic strata look at it for social mobility. What will remain in the system if your appointments are so maligned.” Gupta replied that the same logic will apply to upset their termination as these persons whom the court is talking about will come on the streets if they lose jobs.

On the previous date of hearing, the top court raised questions over the alleged irregularities as the commission had outsourced the task of conducting examination to an agency called NYSA while another company in Noida was handed over the task of scanning the OMR sheets received as digital records. The commission did not possess these records and the CBI collected the digital copies of OMR sheets from the possession of an official working with NYSA.

The bench told the state, “These are matters of confidence and trust. You turned a blind eye to the entire matter being a statutory body. You allowed the entire material to be stored in the server of an outsourced agency (NYSA). What greater breach of security protocols can be there than this.”

Many of the teachers cited their plight as some were cancer patients who depended on their employment for meeting their financial needs.

Concerns about an imminent arrest of the teachers was raised by senior advocate Dushyant Dave, who sought to find fault with the order of the single judge bench of justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay in 2022 as the genesis of this controversy. The judge recently retired and joined politics, and is contesting in the Lok Sabha elections on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket. With Dave raising objection to the judge’s conduct in having an axe to grind against the teachers and state, the bench said, “We are not here to scrutinise the conduct of the judge...However politically fraught the matter is, we must remain as lawyers and not go by ideological divides.”

The BJP, however, claimed that corruption in school recruitment in West Bengal has been proven in the court.

“The TMC is neck-deep in corruption in this scam. They cannot evade their responsibilities,” BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said.

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2024-05-08T00:56:50Z dg43tfdfdgfd