SC stays HC order nixing 25,000 Bengal school appointments

NEW DELHI: In a relief to over 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staff recruited in West Bengal in 2019,

Supreme Court

on Tuesday stayed a

Calcutta high court

order annulling their appointments but warned that those recruited illegally would have to refund salaries to the state.
A bench, after daylong proceedings, agreed to examine modalities by which tainted candidates could be segregated from non-tainted ones so as to enable the court to save the jobs of those who made it to the merit list honestly.

SC permits CBI to continue probe into WB school jobs scam

Dictating the order in open court much after the end of business hours at 4pm, the bench of CJI D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said, "The court cannot be unmindful of the impact of setting aside of a large complement of assistant teachers recruited for teaching Class 9-10 and 11-12 students, which would be the consequence if the impugned judgment of HC stands."

However, it permitted CBI to carry on with its investigation subject to the condition that it would not arrest the tainted recruits or take any coercive action against them. It posted the matter for final hearing on July 16. Also, SC continued its April 29 interim order barring CBI from interrogating ministers or state govt employees allegedly responsible for creation of supernumerary posts to appoint waitlisted candidates.

It said the court's scrutiny would focus on the appointment of those who did not figure in the list of those selected, those appointed after expiry of the validity of the selection panel, those appointed through manipulation of OMR answer sheets.
The bench said, "The submissions raised on behalf of petitioners would merit further consideration. The certificate under Section 65(b) of Evidence Act was issued, as CBI report notes, by Pankaj Bansal, a former employee of Nysa Communication Pvt Ltd (which was tasked with scanning and evaluating the OMR sheets but outsourced it to Datascan). The legitimacy of the certificate would prima facie plough the route of the data, which formed the basis of the judgment of the HC."

It added, "A further issue which would emerge is whether the appointments which suffer from taint can be specifically segregated. If such an exercise is possible, it would be unfair to set aside the entirety of selection which extends to as many as 25,000 appointments."
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave repeatedly asked for scrutiny of conduct of Justice Avijit Gangopadhyay. But the bench said, "We are not here to scrutinise his conduct. Levelling allegations against a judge is not going to carry the penny forward." Gangopadhyay has since resigned as a judge, joined BJP and is contesting from Tamluk.