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The Supreme Court of India on Thursday delivered a significant blow to the West Bengal government by upholding the Calcutta High Court’s ruling that declared the recruitment of approximately 26,000 teachers and non-teaching staff through the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) as illegal. 

The verdict, which came from a bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar, effectively annulled the entire 2016 recruitment panel, citing large-scale corruption and fraud in the process.

The Supreme Court directed the state government to conduct a fresh recruitment process within three months while allowing age relaxations for candidates who had previously appeared for the 2016 SSC examination.

The ruling came after the Supreme Court had temporarily stayed the High Court’s verdict in February, providing a brief reprieve for the affected employees. However, with the latest judgment, the employment status of thousands has been decisively invalidated.

The case has been at the center of a massive corruption scandal involving the 2016 SSC recruitment process for teachers and non-teaching staff in secondary and higher secondary schools. The Calcutta High Court had earlier nullified the recruitment process, leading to the termination of 25,753 individuals who were appointed in 2019. 

 

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The West Bengal government, along with the state education department, the WBSSC, and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), had challenged this decision in the Supreme Court. Additionally, multiple petitions were filed by candidates who alleged that they had been unfairly deprived despite qualifying through the selection process.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have been actively investigating the case. Their probe led to the arrest of several key figures, including former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, his close associate Arpita Mukherjee, a vice-chancellor, and multiple officials within the WBSSC hierarchy. These arrests further underscored the depth of corruption in the recruitment process.

Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, while delivering the judgment, emphasized that the entire recruitment process was irredeemably tainted by fraud. He noted that crucial information had been deliberately withheld, making the entire process illegal and untrustworthy. 

The Supreme Court’s directives included the immediate cancellation of jobs secured through fraudulent means, the recovery of salaries and financial benefits received by those who had secured jobs through forgery, and the continuation of the CBI investigation. The court also ruled that the flawed recruitment process violated Articles 14 and 16 of the Indian Constitution, which guarantee equality before the law and equal opportunity in public employment, respectively. 

A fresh recruitment process was mandated within three months, with certain relaxations for candidates who had appeared in the 2016 examination but were not part of the corruption scandal.

 

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The Supreme Court also examined the irregularities in the recruitment process, particularly the scanning of the OMR answer sheets. The WBSSC had initially contracted NYSA Communications, a private firm, to handle the scanning and evaluation of these sheets. 

However, this task was later outsourced to another private company, DATA Scantech Solutions, based in Noida. A crucial breakthrough in the investigation came in September 2022 when the CBI recovered three hard disks from Pankaj Bansal, a former NYSA employee. 

These disks contained scanned OMR data, revealing discrepancies between the marks stored in the WBSSC’s server and those recorded in Bansal’s database. The CBI’s findings confirmed that officials had tampered with marks in the SSC server to fraudulently qualify candidates who had originally failed the examination.

During the hearings, the Supreme Court had previously issued an interim order instructing that salaries received by the illegally recruited candidates be refunded and that the CBI investigation continue, albeit without arbitrary arrests. 

Senior advocate Biva Makhija, representing affected candidates, argued that instead of scrapping the entire recruitment process, only those who had obtained jobs through fraudulent means should be removed. She suggested that their positions be filled by the next eligible candidates from the merit list.

She also highlighted concerns about many candidates having exceeded the age limit for eligibility if a fresh recruitment process were to be initiated. However, the Supreme Court dismissed this argument, stating that transparency and legality were paramount.

Advocate Jaydeep Gupta, representing the WBSSC, contended that the High Court had erred in concluding that the commission had not cooperated with the investigation. Meanwhile, advocate Meenakshi Arora, representing candidates whose jobs had been annulled, requested that those affected be given a personal hearing to defend their employment. 

Chief Justice Khanna dismissed this plea, affirming that the issue was not political but rather a matter of ensuring transparency and integrity in public recruitment.

With the Supreme Court’s final ruling, the West Bengal government now faces the challenge of conducting a fresh and transparent recruitment drive within the stipulated three-month period while the CBI continues its probe into fraudulent activities.

The timeline of the SSC recruitment scam provides a detailed account of how the irregularities unfolded. The recruitment process was initiated in August 2016 when the SSC notified exams for Group C, Group D, and assistant teachers in government-aided schools. 

In November-December 2017, panels for Group C and D candidates were published, displaying scores and ranks. By 2018, a similar panel was published for assistant teachers. In 2019, some candidates approached the High Court, demanding that the complete selection list, with all details, be made public. 

In March 2019, the High Court ordered the SSC to upload the full list within a week, which was eventually published in June 2019.

In August 2021, complaints started emerging after candidates noticed that individuals with lower marks had secured appointments due to SSC recommendations. By December 2021, the Calcutta High Court’s single bench ordered a CBI probe into the matter. 

However, a division bench later quashed this order and instead formed a three-member special committee to investigate the allegations. In February 2022, the single bench once again ordered a CBI probe upon noticing that individuals who were not even on the waiting list had been appointed as teachers. 

By March 2022, the division bench stayed the CBI probe, prompting the single bench judge to write to the Chief Justices of India and the Calcutta High Court, raising concerns about interference with his orders.

In April 2022, division bench judges recused themselves from the case, transferring all SSC-related cases. Later that month, the division bench reinstated the CBI probe but barred the agency from making arrests. 

The single bench then ordered the immediate questioning of former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee. However, Chatterjee secured relief from the division bench, which stayed the order. By May 2022, the special committee submitted its report, holding the WBSSC and the state government accountable for the irregularities. 

The division bench eventually upheld the single bench’s order, affirming the necessity of a CBI probe into the scam.

With the Supreme Court’s final verdict now in place, the West Bengal government must conduct a fresh recruitment drive while ensuring that the process is transparent, fair, and free of corruption. The decision also reinforces the importance of maintaining integrity in public sector hiring, setting a precedent for future recruitment processes across the country.

 

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