Today, On 3rd April, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she “can’t accept the Supreme Court’s judgment” on the teacher recruitment case but promised to follow it. The court canceled thousands of job appointments and ordered a fresh hiring process. Banerjee disagreed with the decision but assured that a new recruitment drive will take place. Her statement comes after a big legal setback for her government in this matter.
Kolkata: Hours after her government encountered a significant setback in the teachers’ recruitment issue, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stated that while she personally does not accept the Supreme Court’s judgment, her government will implement it and will repeat the selection process.
She also questioned whether the BJP wanted the education system in Bengal to deteriorate.
She told the media this afternoon,
“As a citizen of this country, I have every right, and I cannot accept this judgment, with due respect to the judges. I am expressing my opinion from a humanitarian perspective. Don’t misinform or create confusion,”
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She confirmed that the government acknowledges the ruling and has instructed the School Service Commission to restart the recruitment process.
The Supreme Court upheld the Calcutta High Court’s order today, which cancelled the appointments of over 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staff under the West Bengal School Service Commission.
The Supreme Court indicated that the entire selection process was “vitiated by manipulation and fraud,” and stated that its credibility and legitimacy had been “denuded.”
The bench, consisting of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar, noted that there was no reason to interfere with the High Court’s order, declaring that the appointments were the result of cheating and therefore fraudulent.
Highlighting a key point from the judgment, Banerjee remarked that those appointed through the legitimate process are also suffering due to the actions of others.
She asserted,
“It’s not just 25,000 candidates, their families are impacted too,”
Addressing the substantial amount recovered from the residence of Delhi High Court judge Yashwant Varma, she said,
“If you recover money from a sitting judge’s home, he is only transferred. Then why were these candidates not transferred? The first judge to give this order is now a BJP MP. BJP and CPM have conspired to lead to this verdict,”
This case arose from alleged irregularities during the 2016 recruitment process conducted by the West Bengal SSC, which saw 23 lakh candidates compete for 24,640 posts, leading to 25,753 appointment letters being issued.
Complaints surfaced about the illegal appointment of ineligible candidates, with claims that recruitment rules had been violated. Several candidates who were denied selection challenged the process alleging corruption, manipulation of merit lists, and favoritism in the hiring process.