Bengal teachers recruitment scam: SC puts on hold HC order cancelling 25,000 appointments, CBI to continue probe

The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the Calcutta High Court order cancelling the appointment of nearly 24,000 assistant teachers and non-teaching staff in West Bengal.  

The bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra delivered the verdict on a plea filed by the West Bengal government, challenging the high court's April 22 decision to cancel about 24,000 appointments of teaching and non-teaching staff made in 2016 by the West Bengal School Service Commission.

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The high court had also ordered the 24,000 candidates to return the salaries they received. The case is related to the “school jobs for cash scam”, Bar and Bench reported.

Besides putting on hold the high court's order, the Supreme Court allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to continue its probe into the recruitment scam. 

The court, however, said it would not take any coercive steps against any West Bengal government official or candidate. It rather put a condition for their interim protection. 

As per Bar and Bench, the court said the interim protection would continue, provided that any person found to have been appointed illegally and continued as a consequence of the present order by the Supreme Court should undertake to refund the salary drawn by them if the case was eventually decided against them”.

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The bench also called for an expedited hearing in the case and listed the matter for hearing on July 16.

'School jobs for cash scam'

The alleged “school jobs for cash scam” pertains to various illegal recruitments allegedly made in the primary and secondary schools across West Bengal during the recruitment process of 2016.

As per reports, more than 23 lakh candidates took the test for the 24,000 job vacancies in 2016. It was alleged before the Calcutta High Court that most candidates were given jobs after wrongly evaluating the Optical Mark Recognition sheets.

The High Court Bench of Justices Debangsu Basak and Md Shabbar Rashidi had then noted that there was no clarity as to which of the 23 lakh answer sheets were evaluated properly. It had, therefore, ordered a re-evaluation of all the sheets of the recruitment entrance exams while cancelling the appointments made.