1. Calcutta High Court nullifies 2016 WBSSC teacher recruitment panel over scam.
2. Nearly 24,000 teaching jobs were revoked by a court ruling.
3. WBSSC faces a setback as the entire 2016 recruitment process is invalidated.
Kolkata, April 22: The Calcutta High Court dealt a significant blow to the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) on Monday by annulling the entire 2016 recruitment panel for school teachers due to a jobs scam. This ruling has resulted in the cancellation of nearly 24,000 jobs.
During the hearing, a division bench comprising Justices Debangsu Basak and Md Shabbar Rashidi mandated that school teachers recruited through illegal means, specifically through blank OMR sheets, must return their salaries within four weeks. The responsibility of collecting these salaries falls upon the district magistrate.
The annulled recruitment panel encompasses all appointments of teaching and non-teaching staff, which were made through the WBSSC entrance examination in 2016, across various state-government-sponsored and aided schools in Bengal.
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Furthermore, the bench ordered the re-evaluation of approximately 23 lakh OMR sheets used in the recruitment entrance exam.
Despite requests from some appellants for a stay on the order, the bench rejected them. Additionally, the CBI has been instructed to conduct further investigation into the appointment process and submit a report within three months.
In response to the court’s decision, the WBSSC has been directed to initiate a fresh appointment process, signaling a new chapter in the recruitment saga.
The 2016 State Level Selection Test (SLST) conducted by the WBSSC witnessed the participation of over 23 lakh candidates vying for over 24,000 vacant posts.
The verdict brought jubilation to hundreds of job aspirants who had been anxiously awaiting outside the court premises for the outcome.
The High Court had concluded the hearing on March 20, with the judgment being reserved by the division bench.
The CBI’s involvement in the case was initiated on an earlier court order, and the federal agency had arrested former Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee in 2022 for his alleged involvement in the scam.
Former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Ganguly, now a BJP candidate from Bengal’s Tamluk constituency in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, had ordered the CBI investigation into the case.
