Chief Justice Chandrachud referred to the alleged recruitment scam as “systemic fraud” and stressed the importance of maintaining public trust and the digitized records of the 25,753 appointments.
NEW DELHI: On Tuesday (6th Aug), the Supreme Court announced it will hear the West Bengal Government’s and others’ pleas in September against a Calcutta High Court order that invalidated the appointments of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff in State Government and aided schools.
A bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud allowed the parties time to submit their responses to the petitions by August 16.
Chief Justice Chandrachud referred to the alleged recruitment scam as “systemic fraud” and stressed the importance of maintaining public trust and the digitized records of the 25,753 appointments.
“Time for filing the written submissions for the petitioners in the West Bengal group of matters will be extended till next Friday,”
stated Chief Justice Chandrachud.
On July 16, the Supreme Court granted a final opportunity to file responses to the pleas challenging the Calcutta High Court order. The challenges include one filed by the West Bengal Government. The bench was informed that many parties had yet to file their response affidavits, including the West Bengal government in cases where it was a respondent.
The bench issued several procedural directions and appointed four lawyers Astha Sharma, representing the state government, and Shalini Kaul, Partha Chatterjee, and Shekhar Kumar as nodal counsel, asking them to file a common compilation in electronic form after gathering details from the lawyers of various parties.
On May 7, the Supreme Court provided significant relief to teachers and non-teaching staff in West Bengal whose services were invalidated by the high court due to irregularities in the appointment process. The court allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to continue its probe, including the investigation of state Cabinet members if necessary, but instructed the CBI not to arrest any suspects during the investigation.
The Supreme Court stated that teachers and non-teaching staff whose appointments were cancelled would need to refund their salaries and other benefits if it was concluded that their recruitment was illegal.
The state government had challenged the Calcutta High Court’s order, arguing that the appointments were canceled “arbitrarily.”
The court emphasized the need for a closer analysis to determine if tainted appointments could be separated from the legitimate ones, suggesting it would be wrong to nullify the entire process if segregation was possible.
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The High court had not only cancelled the appointments but also directed the CBI to investigate the process and report back within three months. Over 23 lakh candidates appeared for the State Level Selection Test (SLST)-2016 for 24,640 vacant posts, yet 25,753 appointment letters were issued.
The high court ordered those appointed beyond the officially available vacancies, those appointed after the official recruitment date, and those who submitted blank OMR sheets but received appointments, to return all remunerations and benefits with 12 percent annual interest within four weeks.
