SC Upholds Calcutta High Court’s Decision to Cancel Recruitment of Over 24,000 Teachers and Staff

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the decision of the Calcutta High Court to cancel the recruitment of more than 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staff by the SSC in 2016 for state-run and state-aided schools.

The bench led by CJI Sanjiv Khanna, while pronouncing the verdict on April 3, stated that the court found no valid reason to interfere with the decision of the Calcutta High Court.

“We find no valid ground or reason to interfere with the decision of the High Court that services of tainted candidates must be terminated,” the bench said while delivering the verdict.
 

The bench further emphasized, “Tainted candidates must be terminated, and the appointments were a result of cheating and thus fraud.”

They highlighted that the appointment process was flawed with manipulation and fraud, making the appointments invalid.

The top court ruling also stated that all individuals who were appointed during the recruitment process would be removed from their positions.

The bench clarified that candidates who have already been recruited need not refund the salaries they have already received.

The Court also ordered that a fresh selection process should be completed within three months.

“The fresh selection process can also have relaxations for untainted candidates,” the Court added.

Background of the Case:

The case pertains to the 2016 recruitment process conducted by the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) for the appointment of teachers and non-teaching staff in state-run and state-aided schools.

Over 23 lakh candidates had appeared for the examinations for 24,000 job vacancies in 2016. It was alleged before the Calcutta High Court that many candidates were given jobs due to wrongful evaluation of OMR sheets.

The Calcutta High Court noted irregularities in the OMR sheets, the ranking of candidates, and the evaluation method.

As a result, re-evaluation was ordered, leading to the cancellation of these appointments. The High Court also directed the 24,000 candidates to return the salaries they had received.

The matter was presented to the Supreme Court after 126 appeals were filed challenging the High Court’s judgment, including one by the West Bengal government