West Bengal schools recruitment: SC confirms en bloc cancellation of nearly 24,000 appointments in govt., aided schools

The recruitments, made in 2016 by the West Bengal School Service Commission, were linked to the cash-for-school jobs recruitment “scam”

In a blow to the West Bengal government, the Supreme Court in a judgment on Thursday upheld a Calcutta High Court decision cancelling en bloc a “tainted” selection process which saw the appointments of nearly 24,000 teachers and non-teaching staff in government and aided schools across the State.

On April 22 last year, the High Court had ordered the invalidation of all 23,123 appointments teaching and non-teaching staffers, whether tainted or not.

The recruitments, made in 2016 by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC), were linked to the cash-for-school jobs recruitment “scam”. The SSC had held the selection process in 2016 for assistant teachers for classes nine to 12 and non-teaching staff.

A Bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar agreed with the High Court finding that the selection process was vitiated and riddled with manipulations and fraud. Attempts were made to cover up the fraud which has only further denuded its credibility and legitimacy of the selection process.

The Supreme Court judgment, authored by the Chief Justice of India, found “no valid ground or reason to interfere with the direction of the High Court that the services of the tainted candidates must be terminated and they should refund their salaries and payments received. Since appointments were a result of fraud, we see no justification to alter this direction”.

“Their appointments were the result of fraud, this amounts to cheating,” Chief Justice Khanna, who authored the judgment, observed.

Chief Justice Khanna declared that the entire selection process would be null and void for even candidates who were not specifically found tainted. The apex court said the egregious violations and illegalities found in the selection process violated Article 14 (right to equality) and Article 16 (right to equal opportunity in public employment) of the Constitution.

However, candidates among this category who are already employed need not be asked to refund or restitute any payments made to them. However, their services would be terminated. Furthermore, no candidate can be appointed once the entire examination process and results were declared void.

The apex court directed that no further appointments should be made on the basis of this selection process.

The judgment allowed further concessions for candidates who did not fall within the “tainted category”. Some of these candidates had been working in other government departments of the State before they took the teachers’ and non-teaching exam in 2016.

Such candidates would have the right to apply to their previous departments to continue their service there. The respective departments must process these applications and allow the candidates to resume their positions. The period between the termination from these departments and their rejoining would not be considered as a break in service. Their seniority and other entitlements would be preserved. However, they would not be eligible for wages during the period of break. The court ordered the State government to complete this process within three months.

As far as disabled candidates, they would continue in service as teachers and non-teaching staff until a fresh selection process is completed. The disabled candidates would be allowed to participate in the new recruitment process, if required, with age relaxation.

The State of West Bengal had approached the apex court contending that the High Court had acted in an erroneous manner by mechanically cancelling all the appointments without segregating and examining the merits of each individual recruitment.

The State had argued that the sudden termination of 23,123 teaching and non-teaching staff had put school education in a quandary. The education system itself had threatened to come to a virtual standstill. The

The apex court also did not intervene in the High Court’s direction for a CBI investigation into the scam. It noted that the judgment would not impede or affect the ongoing criminal proceedings in the case.

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Published - April 03, 2025 11:21 am IST