In a massive loss of face to the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal, 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. 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.
“In our opinion, this is a case wherein the entire selection process has been vitiated and tainted beyond resolution. Manipulations and frauds on a large scale, coupled with the attempted cover-up, have dented the selection process beyond repair and partial redemption. The credibility and legitimacy of the selection are denuded,” the court said in its order.
The court said that the candidates not specifically found to be tainted won’t have to refund the salaries they have received over the years. “However, their services will be terminated. Furthermore, no candidate can be appointed once the entire examination process and results have been declared void,” it said.
The Mamata Banerjee government had challenged the high court order in the Supreme Court, and pressed for a segregation of tainted and untainted candidates.
The court, however, said any verification and ascertainment became difficult “given the scale of camouflage and dressing up done at each stage”. “We are convinced that the entire selection process was intentionally compromised due to the illegalities involved,” it said.
The court noted that the West Bengal School Service Commission has admitted to rank jumping — candidates having lower rank were preferred over those having higher rank –, out of panel appointments, appointment of candidates not recommended by the commission and manipulation of OMR scores.
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.
Senior BJP leader Amit Malviya described the Supreme Court verdict as a “crushing defeat” for Mamata Banerjee. “Mamata Banerjee’s close aide, Partha Chatterjee – who served as the Education Minister and was caught with wads of cash – is already in jail for his role in the scam. The Chief Minister, under whose watch this massive fraud ruined the careers of thousands of youths, must also be held accountable and face trial,” he said.
Hours after the verdict, West Bengal Chief Minister 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 the Opposition BJP and CPM wanted Bengal’s education system to collapse and alleged a conspiracy.
