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Big relief for 'untainted' Bengal teachers as top court allows them to continue
The court also directed the West Bengal government to start a fresh recruitment drive by May 31 and finish it by December 31.
The Supreme Court on Thursday said that ‘untainted’ assistant teachers who lost their jobs after the top court's order can continue to teach. The court said the decision was made in the interest of the students.
The court also directed the West Bengal government to start a fresh recruitment drive by May 31 and complete the process by December 31.
“We are inclined to accept the prayer in the present application as it relates to the assistant teachers of Classes IX-X and Classes XI-XII, ” a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar said.
The order will apply only to assistant teachers, as the bench noted that in the Group C and D recruitments, large-scale bungling was found.
On April 3, the Supreme Court had invalidated the appointments of over 25,000 teaching and non-teaching staff in state-sponsored and aided schools after finding large-scale irregularities in the 2016 recruitment by the School Service Commission.
A bench led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar had concluded that the recruitment process in question was fundamentally flawed.
In its judgment, the court had stated that manipulations in the recruitment process had compromised the integrity of the appointments to such an extent that they could not be sustained. The justices emphasised that the entire selection process was vitiated and tainted, making the appointments invalid.
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Many of those who lost their jobs claimed that the reason behind their plight was the inability of the School Service Commission, which appointed them, to differentiate between the candidates who secured employment through fraudulent means and those who did not.
The “deserving” teachers have been agitating in the state, demanding that the West Bengal government and the SSC find a mechanism so that they could be back in service. They have been on a sit-in for the past few days.
Last week, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee met thousands of teaching and non-teaching staffers who lost their jobs in government-run and aided schools following the Supreme Court's verdict.
Assuring support, she said: “I stand by those who lost their jobs in schools in Bengal. I will do everything to restore their dignity.”
