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Bengal govt, WBSSC challenge HC order barring tainted teachers from job test
WBSSC, which notified the recruitment process on May 30, which did not specify that only non-tainted teachers would be eligible
KOLKATA: The West Bengal government and the state school service commission (WBSSC) on Tuesday filed a petition before a Calcutta high court division challenging the single bench order that barred identifiable tainted recruits from the 2016 panel from appearing for the fresh selection test for government school teachers, lawyers aware of the development said.
The Supreme Court on April 3 cancelled the appointment of 25,752 school teachers and non-teaching staff (Group-C and D) from the 2016 recruitment panel. On an appeal by the state, the top court on April 17 allowed non-tainted teachers to continue in service until December 31 but required them to appear for the fresh selection test.
WBSSC, which notified the recruitment process on May 30, which did not specify that only non-tainted teachers would be eligible. Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya of the high court on Monday held that teachers who had been classified as tainted could not appear for the test as per the direction of the Supreme Court and directed WBSSC to cancel applications filed by these people since Jun 14, when the process started.
“Paragraph 49 of the Supreme Court’s (April 17) order said candidates not found to be specifically tainted can sit for the tests. We will move a contempt petition before the Supreme Court against WBSSC,” lawyer Bikram Banerjee, one of the lawyers representing the jobless teachers, said.
The petitioners told the bench of justice Bhattacharyya that the tainted teachers were being given an opportunity to get back their jobs.
Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member and senior lawyer Kalyan Banerjee, who appeared for the WBSSC, told the single bench on Monday that the alleged tainted teachers were being penalised for a second time since they had already lost their jobs. The court did not take his argument into consideration.
“How many times can a person be penalised?” Banerjee told the media after Monday’s hearing.
During a hearing on July 1, the bench of justice Bhattacharyya observed that the Supreme Court directed that the fresh test should be held following the 2016 recruitment rules.
Some shortlisted candidates from 2016, who also filed petitions before the bench of justice Bhattacharyya, alleged that WBSSC violated the 2016 recruitment rules by altering the weightage criteria for different components in the ongoing selection process. The commission has earmarked 10 marks each for “prior teaching experience” and “classroom demonstration”. This is a major deviation from the rules under which the 2016 tests were held, the petitioners said.
“Since the single bench did not pass any order on the weightage criteria or any other aspect of the selection process the petitioners moved a division bench on Tuesday,” Firdous Shamim, another lawyer representing the petitioners, said.
Neither education minister Bratya Basu nor any WBSSC official commented on the petitions till Tuesday evening.
Former state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the TMC government was using public funds to fight court cases for job seekers who paid bribes to get through. “TMC wants to help the tainted teachers because these people won’t spare them,” he said.
The alleged corruption hit the headlines in May 2022 when the high court ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the appointment of non-teaching staff (Group-C and D) and teaching staff by WBSSC and the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education between 2014 and 2021 when TMC’s Partha Chatterjee was education minister.
The Enforcement Directorate, which started a parallel probe, arrested Chatterjee in July 2022. ED filed charges against him, ex-primary education board president and legislator Manik Bhattacharya and 52 others in January this year.
