Bengal School Job Case: Calcutta HC cancels 25,753 appointments made in 2016

Calcutta: In a major setback to Mamata’s government, the division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Monday canceled all appointments in the education and non-education categories made by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) in 2016.

The division bench of Justices Debangsu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi canceled a total of 25,753 appointments of WBSSC, including secondary and higher secondary school teachers and non-teaching staff under Group-C and Group-D categories.

The division bench has also directed that the candidates from the expired panels, who have been given appointments, will have to repay the entire salary drawn by them within the next four weeks. They will have to repay the amount along with an annual interest rate of 12 percent.

Besides directing the WBSSC to initiate a fresh recruitment process, the division bench also directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to continue investigation into the case. The CBI could also take into custody anyone they deem necessary for questioning, the division bench noted.

The division bench also took note of the decision of the state cabinet for creation of super numerical posts. As per the order of the division bench, if necessary, the CBI can also question the masterminds behind the creation of the super-numerical posts, which were under the cloud since inception.

It was believed that the super-numerical posts were created to provide rooms for ineligible candidates who had been recruited illegally.

The only exception was made in the case of one candidate Soma Das on humanitarian grounds. Her recruitment will not be canceled because she is a cancer patient.

As per the division bench order, WBSSC will also have to upload all OMR (Optical Mark Recognition) sheets on its website so that common people can access them.

The division bench of Justices Basak and Justice Rashidi was constituted to hear all matters related to the multi-crore cash-for-school case in West Bengal, on the directions of the Supreme Court, which also directed the division bench to conduct the hearing to complete. process in a time-bound manner.

Though the hearing in the case concluded on March 20, the Division Bench had reserved the verdict. On that day, Judge Basak made a telling comment that there was nothing good about the entire recruitment process. He also noted that recruitments had exceeded the vacant posts and that those additional appointments should be terminated.

(IANS)