Kolkata: The Calcutta high court on Tuesday allowed separate petitions challenging the format of a fresh selection test for the Bengal government-appointed school teachers from the 2016 panel and chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s decision to offer monthly stipend to the Group-C and D staff inducted that year, lawyers aware of the development said.
The appointments of all these people were cancelled by the Supreme Court on April 3 in the bribe-for-job case.
Both petitions were filed by people who appeared for the selection tests in 2016 but did not get jobs. They have claimed to be victims of the alleged bribe-for-job in the education department that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) have been probing since 2022.
“It was known that the format of the fresh selection test would be challenged in court because it lacks transparency and violates the guidelines set by the court,” said senior lawyer Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, representing victims of the alleged bribe-for-job case.
The appointments of all 25,752 school teachers and non-teaching staff (Group-C and D) from the 2016 recruitment panel were cancelled by a bench of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) 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.
{{/usCountry}}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.
{{/usCountry}}Notification for the test was published on May 30. Before that, chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced that an additional 11,517 posts for classes 9 and 10 teachers, 9,912 posts for classes 11 and 12 teachers and 1,571 vacancies at Group-C and D level have been created for the same selection process. With these, the tests will be conducted to fill up more than 44,000 vacancies.
Altering weightage criteria for different components in the selection process, the West Bengal School Service Commission has earmarked 10 marks each for “prior teaching experience” and “classroom demonstration.”
The petitioners have objected to this saying freshers will automatically score 20 marks less. They have also argued that tainted teachers are being given an opportunity to get their jobs back although the Supreme Court directed that only non-tainted teachers can appear for the tests.
Since the Group-C and D school staff have been barred by the Supreme Court from taking a fresh test, Banerjee announced that they will be recruited later for other government departments but will receive a fixed monthly stipend during the interim period. The petition challenging this decision has asked how tainted people can be paid from the state exchequer.
The petition challenging the selection process is scheduled to be heard on June 5 while the one challenging the stipend is likely to be heard on June 9, lawyers said.
No state government official commented on the petitions.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) spokesperson Kunal Ghosh alleged that lawyers were trying to foil the selection test.
“When the state government is making all possible efforts to ensure that people get back their jobs some lawyers are putting up hurdles,” said Bhattacharya.
Amit Ranjan Bhuniya, one of the teachers leading an ongoing protest against a fresh test, said: “Instead of paying bribes we worked hard to get our jobs. Why should we appear for the same examination after eight years?”
The alleged scam hit the headlines in May 2022 when the Calcutta high court ordered a CBI to probe 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.
ED, which started a parallel probe, arrested Chatterjee in July 2022, and filed charges against him, ex-primary education board president and legislator Manik Bhattacharya and 52 others in January this year.