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SC asks Bengal school commission to provide tainted teachers’ list in a week
The Supreme Court set aside a 2016 recruitment process, saying that fraud and manipulation vitiated it, and permitted the untainted teachers to continue in service until December 31
The Supreme Court has granted a week to the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) to provide the list of teachers whose recruitment it set aside while quashing a 2016 recruitment process, saying that fraud and manipulation vitiated it.
The fresh order was passed on a petition from the teachers of Classes 11-12 declared eligible to appear for the fresh recruitment process. The petitioners challenged a May 30 WBSSC notification, calling it “ambiguous”. They alleged that the state was permitting the tainted candidates, who are ineligible to take the fresh test.
A bench of justices Sanjay Kumar and Satish Chandra Sharma on Thursday asked the state whether it had disclosed the list of tainted candidates.
Senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee, appearing for WBSSC, said that it had, but later informed the court that it was not done. The court took exception to the change in stand and asked the commission if it was willing to provide the list to ensure these candidates do not get recruited after the test next month.
Banerjee agreed to make the list public. The court noted this in its order and said the list of tainted candidates shall be published within seven days.
Senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy and advocate Abhijeet Upadhyay, who represented the untainted teachers, informed the court that the May 30 notification fixed the age bar and minimum educational qualification that should not apply to the petitioners permitted to appear in the fresh recruitment process.
On April 17, the Supreme Court permitted the untainted teachers to continue in service until December 31. It directed the state to complete the recruitment process by then, keeping in mind the interest of students, who would otherwise be impacted by the cancellation of the recruitment of over 25,000 teachers.
The court directed the WBSSC to file its counter-affidavit to the petition and posted the matter for further hearing on October 8.
Banerjee told the court that the petitioners have submitted their forms for the fresh recruitment. He said the written tests for teachers will be held on September 7 and 14.
In a separate proceeding pending in the court, the WBSSC said 15,800 untainted candidates were eligible for the fresh recruitment process.
Guruswamy told the court that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which probed into the alleged fraud in the recruitment process, provided the tainted list to the state government.
The Supreme Court noted the irregularities in its April 3 judgment. “Manipulations and frauds on a large scale, coupled with the attempted cover-up, have dented the selection process beyond repair and partial redemption,” it had said. “The credibility and legitimacy of the selection are denuded.”
The CBI alleged that candidates paid leaders associated with the ruling Trinamool Congress for a place in the merit list. It added that some of the selected candidates had submitted blank answer sheets in certain cases. The CBI also pointed to illegal and arbitrary rank-jumping.
On August 5, the court dismissed the state’s review petition challenging the April 3 order. “No doubt, invalidation of such untainted appointments would lead to heartburn and anguish, which the court was fully conscious of, but protecting the purity of the selection process is paramount and necessarily has to be given the highest priority.”
