Supreme Court sets aside 25,000 school appointments in West Bengal

The Supreme Court has upheld the Calcutta High Court's ruling to cancel approximately 25,000 school appointments in West Bengal due to significant irregularities in the hiring process.

The bench, comprising the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar, has supported the Calcutta High Court verdict of April 22, 2024, which annulled the school teacher appointments.

While stating the verdict, the CJI said the teachers whose appointments have been cancelled will not be required to give back their salaries and other emoluments.

The bench has also asked the West Bengal government to start a fresh selection and finish it within three months.

However, the court has made an exception for disabled employees, stating that they can continue with their jobs citing humanitarian grounds.

The West Bengal plea challenging the High Court's directive for a CBI probe will be heard by the SC on April 4.

What is the ‘school jobs for cash scam?’

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

According to reports, more than 23 lakh candidates took the test for the 24,000 job vacancies in 2016. The Calcutta High Court alleged that most candidates were given jobs after wrongly evaluating the Optical Mark Recognition sheets. The High Court earlier stated there was no clarity as to which of the 23 lakh answer sheets were appropriately evaluated. It had, therefore, ordered a re-evaluation of all the sheets of the recruitment entrance exams while cancelling the appointments made.