West Bengal Government Moves Supreme Court Against High Court Order on Teacher Appointments
The West Bengal Government has filed an appeal before the Supreme Court, challenging the Calcutta High Court order that invalidated the appointment of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff made by the State’s School Service Commission (SSC) in State-run and State-aided schools.
In its plea, the State Government argued that the High Court had “arbitrarily” cancelled the appointments without giving sufficient time to the State to deal with the situation and that it would lead to a standstill in the education system.
The Calcutta High Court had on Monday declared the selection process as “null and void” and directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the appointment process within three months. It had also ordered those appointed beyond the available vacancies, after the expiry of the official recruitment date, or with blank Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets to return all remunerations and benefits received with 12% interest per annum within four weeks.
The High Court had rejected the argument that cancelling the entire selection process would prejudice those who had obtained appointments legally, stating that it had no choice as the appointments were violative of Articles 14 (equality before law) and 16 (prohibiting discrimination in employment in any government office) of the Constitution.
The West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) had also sought a stay on the order, but the High Court declined, directing the commission to initiate a fresh appointment process within a fortnight from the date of the results of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
The High Court’s judgment was based on the findings that the appointments were made beyond the panel and after the expiry of the panel and that there may have been a connection between the perpetrators of the fraud and the beneficiaries with persons involved in the decision-making process.
