Bengal school recruitment scam: SC quashes order for fresh selection within three months

New Delhi (IANS). The Supreme Court on Friday set aside the interim direction of the Calcutta High Court asking West Bengal authorities to conduct fresh recruitment of 32,000 teachers by August 2023.

Justice J.K. Maheshwari and K.V. Vishwanathan’s bench was hearing the state government’s appeal against the high court’s refusal to stay the direction of a single-judge bench. The High Court had asked the State Board of Primary Education to complete the recruitment process in the newly created vacancies within three months.

A single-judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the Calcutta High Court had on May 12 ordered the termination of services of 36,000 primary teachers.

The figure was later revised to 32,000.

Passing the order to terminate the services of primary teachers, Justice Gangopadhyay observed that they were not trained and were appointed without appearing for the mandatory qualifying examination.

The West Bengal government then approached a division bench of the Calcutta High Court comprising Justice Subrata Talukdar and Justice Supratim Bhattacharya against the single-judge bench’s order.

The division bench had on May 19 granted an interim stay on the single-judge bench’s order to terminate the jobs till September 23 this year.

However, it did not stay the single-bench direction to complete the recruitment process in the newly created vacancies within three months.

Meanwhile, the state government has moved the Supreme Court in this matter.

On Friday, the top court said that all concerned parties have to be given a chance to be heard.

It asked the Calcutta High Court to expeditiously decide the appeal related to the cash-for-job scam in schools. The Supreme Court said in its order, “We hope and trust that such a dispute will be decided at the earliest.

“Therefore, we ask the High Court to expedite the hearing of the writ appeal.”

It said, “We set aside the interim order directing fresh selection as per the directions of the Single Judge.”