The Supreme Court on Tuesday partially stayed the Calcutta High Court order cancelling the nearly 25000 appointments made by West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) between 2016-2018. The court allowed the conditional interim protection from the Calcutta HC order to continue but ruled that salaries of the illegally appointed employees will have to be refunded as directed by the high court in case the alleged taint is proven. The top court however, allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to continue its probe in the case. The court further noted that it appears that the tainted appointments can be segregated from untainted ones, and so it would be unwise to set aside the appointments in entirety.
The CJI DY Chandrachud led bench said that it is of the view that submission of peititoners merits further consideration. The petitioners contended that the data on basis of which the High Court set aside the nearly 25000 appointments is suspected. "The certificate under S. 65B was issued by Pankanj Bansal former employee of NYSA, the credibility of the above certificate would prima facie lie at the root of the data which forms the basis on which the HC has set aside the entire process," the court noted.
The order came as a relief to thousands of individuals whose jobs were in declared null and void following the Calcutta High Court's ruling on April 22 that invalidated the appointment of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff in state-run and state-aided schools of West Bengal.
On petitioner's contention that untainted appointments can be segregated from tainted ones, the court said that it cannot be unmindful of the teachers appointed in large number and the consequence of upholding the impugned judgment. The modalities would then need to be developed for the same.
"The issue which would merit closer analyses is whether the appointment which suffers from tainted can be segregated, if that is possible then it would be wrong to set aside the entirety of the process. The court should be mindful that a large number of teachers for class 9-10th would be effected....assuming that such a segregation is possible, this court has to set out the modalities to determine the segregation."
The primary question urged by the petitioners was that the data on basis of which the High Court has set aside the nearly 25000 appointments is suspected and in a seletion process of such large magnitude, where segregation of tainted candidates are possible only those appointments should be cancelled.
The bench said, "we are of the view that an expeditious disposal of the matter will be in the interest of Justice, we continue the ad interim protection given, subject to the express stipulation that any person found to have been appointed illegally and continued as consequence of the present order shall refund the salary."
The bench said that if it is proved by the CBI that nearly 8000 teachers obtained the posts by fraudulent means, they may have to return their salaries.
SC Calls School Jobs Scam A Systemic Fraud On People
In the course of hearing CJI Chandrachud pulled up the West Bengal government over the alleged scam and observed that "the public jobs are so scarce. Nothing remains if the faith of the public goes. This is systemic fraud. What remains in the system if their appointments are also maligned? "
The court further said that the authorities were duty-bound to maintain digitised records related to the appointment of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff in Bengal's government-aided schools.
CJI DY Chandrachud led bench was hearing appeal by West Bengal government challenging Calcutta High Court's recent decision to cancel approx 25,000 appointments of teaching and non-teaching staff made in 2016 by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC)
Last week, the apex court stayed the CBI probe ordered by the Calcutta High Court in a recent order where it cancelled 25,753 appointments in teaching and non-teaching posts made by the WBSSC in 2016. A bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra issued the direction while hearing the plea filed by the West Bengal government against the Calcutta High Court's order. However, the top court refused to stay any other direction by the high court.
The state government challenged the high court order that nullified the appointment of all the 25,753 persons empanelled in 2016 for various categories of jobs at secondary and higher secondary schools in the West Bengal.
The Calcutta High Court had declared the entire panel of 2016 SSC recruitment, null and void. The High Court pronounced the judgement on petitions alleged irregularities in the selection of candidates in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided secondary and higher secondary schools through a 2016 recruitment process. The CBI arrested former state education minister Partha Chatterjee and some functionaries who held positions in the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) as a part of this school jobs scam.
A division bench of Justices Debangsu Basak and Shabbar Rashidi of the Calcutta High Court ruled that the candidates appointed will have to return the entire salary drawn by them, along with an annualised interest of 12%, within the next four weeks. The court also directed the WBSSC to start the recruitment process afresh. The bench ruled that all appointments from 9th to 12th and groups C and D where irregularities were found have also been declared null and void. The high court also instructed the administration to take action on fresh appointments in the next 15 days.