Kolkata: A Calcutta high court division bench cancelled the appointment of all 25,753 people impaneled in 2016 for various categories of jobs at secondary and higher secondary schools in West Bengal, said lawyers associated with cases in the alleged bribe-for-job case.
The bench directed the West Bengal School Service Commission to initiate a fresh appointment process. The alleged case is being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The order was passed by the division bench of justice Debangsu Basak and justice Md Shabbar Rashidi.
“The court cancelled the entire panel of 2016. Those who lost jobs include secondary (class 9 and 10) and higher secondary (class 11 and 12) teachers as well as Group C and Group D staff,” lawyer Firdous Shamim, who is representing victims of the alleged case, said.
“The court has ordered that a fresh recruitment process should start after the Lok Sabha polls are over,” he said. “The court also ordered that people who were recruited by the state government after expiry of the time frame of the 2016 panel will have to return the entire salary in four weeks,” Shamim added.
The alleged case came to light when ED arrested former education minister Partha Chatterjee and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee in July 2022. In its first charge sheet filed in September 2022, ED said it traced cash, jewellery and immovable property worth £10.31 mn linked to the duo.
In May 2022, the then Calcutta high court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay ordered the CBI to probe the appointment of non-teaching staff (Group C and D) and teaching staff by the West Bengal School Service Commission and West Bengal Board of Secondary Education between 2014 and 2021. The appointees allegedly paid bribes in the range of Rs 5 to 15,00,000 to get jobs after failing the selection tests.
The Bengal government challenged this order and moved the Supreme Court which directed the Calcutta high court to hear the case.
TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said, “We never denied that some irregularities took place and a few people indulged in corruption. That is being probed. But cancelling all jobs cannot solve the issue.”
