Calcutta HC orders stay on Bengal govt stipend for school staff sacked by SC
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced on April 26 monthly stipends of ₹25,000 and ₹20,000 for jobless Group-C and D staff, respectively
Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court ordered a stay till September 26 on the West Bengal government’s monthly stipend for 2016-batch Group-C and D school staff, whose appointments were scrapped by the Supreme Court in April over a bribe-for-job case, according to lawyers who were present at the hearing on Friday.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had announced on April 26 monthly stipends of ₹25,000 and ₹20,000 for the jobless Group-C and D staff, respectively.
“The order directed the state to file an affidavit in four weeks explaining why public money should be used to pay stipend to people whose appointments have been cancelled by the Supreme Court without provision for any relief,” lawyer Firdous Shamim, who represented petitioners challenging the stipend, said.
The order, which is seen as a setback for the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) government, was passed by the single bench of Justice Amrita Sinha. The last hearing took place on June 9, when the judge had reserved the order.
The contempt petition was filed by some of the 25,752 teachers appointed in 2016 and a section of job aspirants who were not appointed allegedly because of the bribe-for-job case.
Senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya told the court on June 9, on behalf of the petitioners, that the state had violated the Supreme Court’s April 3 decision, which did not grant any relief to the non-teaching Group-C and Group-D staff.
When Justice Sinha raised questions on the stipend scheme, the state’s lawyers said the government wants to temporarily provide “limited livelihood, support and social security” to families of the Group-C and Group-D employees on humanitarian ground.
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The appointments of all 25,752 school teachers and non-teaching staff (Group-C and D) from the 2016 recruitment panel were cancelled by the bench of the Chief Justice of India on April 3 after a series of hearings. The bench said there was no way to segregate the tainted from the non-tainted.
On an appeal by the state, the top court said on April 17 that the non-tainted teachers may be allowed to continue in service until December 31, but they must go through a fresh selection test. Allowing age limit relaxation for these people, the court directed the state to start the process by May 31 and complete it in three months. The top court did not allow any relief for the non-teaching staff.
Also Read: Bengal govt questions contempt petition in teacher recruitment case in high court
On the orders of Calcutta High Court, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) started a probe into the appointment of non-teaching staff (Group C and D) and teaching staff by the West Bengal School Service Commission and the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education between 2014 and 2021, when TMC’s Partha Chatterjee was education minister. Many appointees allegedly paid bribes in the range of ₹5–15 lakh to get jobs after failing the selection tests.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which started a parallel probe, arrested Chatterjee in July 2022. The ED filed charges against him, ex-primary education board president and legislator Manik Bhattacharya, and 52 others in January this year.
