Bengal recruitment row: Supreme Court extends tenure of untainted sacked teachers for now
New Delhi: In a major relief, the Supreme Court Thursday extended till December 31 the services of terminated teachers found untainted by the CBI.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar considered West Bengal’s submissions that the terminations adversely impacted teaching in various state-run and aided schools.
The order came on the pleas of the state government, which moved court after the April 3 verdict.
The top court judgment invalidated the appointment of 25,753 teachers and staffers in various schools, calling the entire selection process “vitiated and tainted”.
Thursday, it also took note of the state government saying fresh recruitment would take time.
Several districts in the state witnessed widespread protests as a section of teachers and non-teaching staffers, rendered unemployed post the Supreme Court verdict, clashed with the police.
Taking note of the submissions, the top court said it will grant extension of service to untainted teachers only, but it won’t apply to Grade C and D employees of the state government-run and aided schools.
“We are inclined to accept the prayer in the present application in so far as it relates to the assistant teachers for classes 9-10th and 11-12th subject to certain conditions,” the CJI said.
Listing out the conditions, the CJI said the advertisement for fresh recruitment will be published on or before May 31 and the entire process including the examination will be completed by December 31 this year.
“This order will not accord any special rights or advantage to the aforesaid teachers in so far as fresh recruitment is concerned,” the CJI added.
The court asked the state government and its West Bengal School Service Commission to file a compliance affidavit on the initiation of the recruitment process on or before May 31.
April 3, the top court while annulling the appointments, upheld a Calcutta High Court verdict of April 22, 2024, and said the tainted candidates should refund their “salaries/payments received”.
“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 bench had said.
The case stemmed from the alleged irregularities in the 2016 recruitment process conducted by the West Bengal SSC in which 23 lakh candidates appeared for 24,640 posts and a total of 25,753 appointment letters were issued. The apex court had called it a “systemic fraud”.
Former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee and Trinamool Congress MLAs Manik Bhattacharya and Jiban Krishna Saha are among the accused being probed in the recruitment scam.
PTI
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