The Calcutta High Court recently cancelled a 2016 job panel for teachers’ recruitment put together by the Bengal commission due to a school jobs scam. As a result, around 24,000 teaching positions have been revoked by the court.
The Calcutta High Court has recently made a significant decision regarding the 2016 recruitment of school teachers by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC). They have canceled the entire recruitment panel due to a jobs scam. This decision affects around 24,000 jobs that have now been dismissed by the court.
In the court hearing, Justices Debangsu Basak and Md Shabbar Rashidi mentioned that teachers who were recruited through illegal means (using blank OMR sheets) will be required to return their salaries within four weeks. The responsibility of collecting these salaries from the teachers lies with the district magistrate.
Amidst recent developments, the recruitment panel overseeing the appointments of teaching and non-teaching staff hired through a WBSC entrance examination in 2016 has been canceled. Originally slated to join state-government-sponsored and aided schools in Bengal, these staff members now find themselves in a state of uncertainty and anticipation.
The court has instructed a re-evaluation of 23 lakh test papers from a recruitment exam. They declined a plea to pause this decision and have asked the CBI to look into the appointment process, with a report due in three months.
The WBSSC is to start a new hiring procedure. 23 lakh candidates took the 2016 State Level Selection Test for over 24,000 jobs. Job seekers rejoiced outside the court when the verdict was announced.
The High Court finished hearing the case on March 20 and the division bench kept the judgment pending. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was looking into the case based on a previous court order. In 2022, the CBI arrested former Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee for his suspected involvement in the scam.
Former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Ganguly, who is currently a BJP candidate from Bengal’s Tamluk in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, had instructed the CBI to investigate the case.