School jobs scam: SC sets asides Calcutta HC order to conduct fresh selection within 3 months

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday set aside an interim direction passed by the Calcutta High Court asking the West Bengal authorities to conduct selection for 32,000 teacher posts afresh before the end of August 2023.

A division bench of Justices J.K. Maheshwari and K.V. Viswanathan was hearing the state government’s appeal against the High Court’s refusal to stay the single-judge Bench direction asking the state Primary education Board to complete the recruitment process in the newly created vacancies within three months.

On May 12, Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had ordered for termination of services of 36,000 primary teachers.

However, later the figure was revised to 32,000.

While passing the order for termination of services of the primary teachers, Justice Gangopadhyay observed that they were not trained and they got the appointment without appearing for the mandatory aptitude tests.

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

On May 19, the division bench had put an interim stay on the single-judge bench order terminating jobs till September 23 this year.

However, it did not grant a stay on the single-bench order which had simultaneously directed the state authorities to complete the recruitment process in the newly created vacancies within three months.

Meanwhile, the state government moved to the Supreme Court in the matter.

On Friday, the apex court said that the opportunity of hearing has to be given to all concerned.

It asked the Calcutta High Court to decide the appeal pertaining to the School Jobs for Cash scam at the earliest. “We hope and trust that such controversy be decided at the earliest.

Therefore, we ask the HC to expedite hearing of the writ appeal,” the top court recorded in its order.

“We set aside the interim order to the extent of directing fresh selection as directed by the single judge,“ it said.