West Bengal recruitment scam: SC stays HC order scrapping teachers’ jobs, favours ‘segregating tainted ones’
West Bengal recruitment scam: SC stays HC order scrapping teachers’ jobs, favours ‘segregating tainted ones’
The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the order of the Calcutta High Court order invalidating appointment of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff made by the 2016 West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) in the state-run and state-aided schools, saying “it would be unfair to set aside all the appointments if the tainted and untainted ones can be segregated”.
The top court, however, made it clear that the teachers and non-teaching staff, whose appointments were cancelled by the High Court, will have to refund their salaries and other emoluments if it reaches the conclusion that their recruitment was illegal.
A three-judge bench, presided by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and comprising justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said, “We are of the view that an expeditious and early disposal of these proceedings would be in the interest of justice and accordingly direct that the proceedings be listed for final hearing and disposal on July 16, 2024.”
The bench, while hearing a batch of pleas including the one filed by the West Bengal government, said, “In the meantime, we are inclined to continue the ad interim protection, which was granted by this court in the order dated November 9, 2023, subject to the express stipulation that any person who is found to have been appointed illegally and has continued as a consequence of the present order shall undertake to refund the entire amount of the salary which may be paid between the date of this order and the final judgment of this court.”
“A further issue which merits closer analysis is as to whether the appointments which suffer from a taint can be specifically segregated. If such an exercise is possible, it would be unfair to set aside the entirety of the selection, which extends to approximately 25,000 appointments” the bench said.
The court said it cannot be unmindful of the impact of setting aside a large complement of assistant teachers, who have been recruited for classes 9 and 10 and classes 11 and 12, “which would be the consequence if the impugned judgement were to be upheld as it stands”. “Assuming that such a segregation is possible, this court would have to determine the modalities which would be followed for that purpose. At this stage, the court must be guided by the fact that by its order dated November 9, 2023, this court had protected the appointments which had been granted subject to the directions of the High Court to expeditiously dispose of the writ petition,” the court said.
The SC termed the recruitment scam a “systemic fraud” and said the state authorities were duty-bound to maintain the digitised records pertaining to the appointment of teachers and non-teaching staff. “This is a systemic fraud… Today public jobs are so scarce and so valued that if the faith of the community in public employment goes then nothing remains… This is a source of social mobility for the people coming from the lower strata. People aspire that my daughter or son will get a government job. If this is the way, I mean we are virtually lowering public employment…,” said the CJI.
Modifying its earlier order, the SC bench directed that the investigation ordered by the Calcutta High Court as per clauses 7 and 8 in the operative directions shall continue but no coercive steps be taken.
Clause 7 of the HC order says: “CBI will undertake further investigation in respect of all the four cases. CBI will interrogate all persons who had received appointments beyond the panel, after expiry of the (SSC) panel and after submitting blank OMR sheets. If necessary, CBI shall undertake custodial interrogation in respect of each of them.”
Clause 8 states: “CBI will undertake further investigations with regard to the persons involved in the state government approving creation of supernumerary posts to accommodate illegal appointments. If necessary, CBI will undertake custodial interrogation of such persons involved.”
The SC order added that it had by its previous order directed that no precipitate action be taken in person of the direction contained in clause 8 of the operative direction of the High Court, and added that this “shall continue to remain in operation”. It also pointed out that the question of creation of supernumerary posts was also a subject of a writ petition before the Calcutta High Court.
The Calcutta HC had on April 22 cancelled the recruitment of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff by the SSC ordering them to return their salaries with interest. The court also ordered fresh recruitment against the posts within 15 days.The HC bench led by Justice Debangsu Basak observed that the OMR sheets of Group C, Group D, Class IX and X were manipulated in 2016, making all the recruitments illegal. It added that the names of those who were recruited were included in the panel illegally.
Challenging this before the SC, the state said in its appeal that the HC, instead of segregating the valid appointments which could not have formed part of the adjudication as opposed to the alleged illegal ones, “has erroneously set aside the selection process in its entirety”.
It said that no case for cancellation of the entire selection process was made out. “…The Hon’ble Court has instead of separating the grains from the chaff proceeded to paint the entire selection process with the same colour of irregularity, leaving the state government, as an appointing authority and as the authority responsible to maintain the teacher-pupil ratio in schools, in a precarious position,” it said.
The state said the HC based on only oral submissions, “without any affidavit on record, has proceeded in a cursory manner” and directed the cancellation “in utter disregard to the fact that the same will lead to a huge vacuum in the state schools, unless new selection process is completed by the SSC, especially when the new academic sessions is on its brim, leading to the students being adversely impacted”.
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