The Calcutta High Court nullified the entire 2016 recruitment panel for school teachers established by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSCC) due to a jobs scam. Approximately 24,000 positions have been invalidated by the court.
During the court session, a division bench consisting of Justices Debangsu Basak and Md Shabbar Rashidi declared that teachers who were hired unlawfully (with blank OMR sheets) must return their salaries within four weeks. The district magistrate has been assigned to recover the funds from these teachers. The annulled recruitment panel encompasses all appointments of teaching and non-teaching staff, recruited through a WBSC entrance examination in 2016, for various state-government-sponsored and aided schools in Bengal.
The bench also mandated the reassessment of up to 23 lakh OMR sheets (test papers) from the recruitment entrance exam that was conducted.
It dismissed a plea from certain appellants for a stay on the ruling. Additionally, the bench instructed the CBI to conduct further investigations into the appointment process and present a report within three months.
The WBSSC has been directed to commence a new appointment procedure.
Over 23 lakh candidates participated in the 2016 State Level Selection Test (SLST) organized by the WBSSC for more than 24,000 vacant positions.
Numerous job seekers, eagerly anticipating the verdict outside the court premises, celebrated upon hearing the decision. The High Court concluded the case hearing on March 20, and the judgment was reserved by the division bench. The CBI was investigating the case based on a prior court order. The federal agency had apprehended former Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee in 2022 due to his alleged involvement in the scam.
Former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Ganguly, now a BJP candidate from Bengal’s Tamluk in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, had instructed the CBI to investigate the case.