In a landmark judgment on Thursday, the Supreme Court of India quashed the 2016 recruitment panel of the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC), resulting in the termination of employment for 25,752 teachers and non-teaching staff across the state.
The ruling has ignited a fierce political storm, with the Opposition implicating the chief minister and the SSC.
Leader of Opposition Subhendu Adhikari, speaking outside the Assembly on Friday, held the state government and the SSC responsible for the mass job cancellations.
“Listening to the Chief Minister's press conference, it sounded like the loud voice of a thief’s mother,” Adhikari remarked, accusing the state of failing to act on multiple opportunities provided by the apex court.
He further alleged that “most of the SSC work was carried out from the house in Naktala,” a reference aimed at the former education minister Partha Chatterjee.
“Partha Chatterjee has destroyed the entire SSC recruitment process. Various officers of the chief minister’s office were associated with Partha.”
The Enforcement Directorate had arrested industry and commerce minister Chatterjee on July 23, 2022 in connection with the alleged school jobs scam. The agency also arrested Chatterjee’s close aide Arpita Mukherjee, from whose property Rs 21 crore in cash was seized during a raid.
Chatterjee was the education minister when the SSC appointment irregularities took place
Suvendu also claimed that the formula developed to address 6,000 vacancies was a “plan of the corrupt Manish Jain.” Jain was the education secretary when the alleged scam took place.
Urging affected candidates to remain resilient, Adhikari said, “Eligible job seekers should appeal to the Supreme Court. You should continue your legal fight; eligible people have nothing to worry about. We are with them.”
Mamata Banerjee on Thursday alleged that both the BJP and the CPI (M) conspired to bring about the job cancellations.
Responding to this claim, Adhikari said, “We did not want anyone to lose their jobs, we only said that the ineligible should be eliminated.”
He further demanded that future SSC recruitment processes be handed over to a central agency.
“The responsibility of the next SSC recruitment should be given to the central agency,” he asserted.
Education minister Bratya Basu, addressing the press at Bikash Bhavan Friday, said, “The Honourable Supreme Court itself has used the term ‘tainted’ in its order, which has confirmed the earlier submission of the SSC about the presence of tainted/untainted candidates in the 2016 recruitment process.”
He added, “However, the SC also said it is not satisfied with the submission of the commission, and as its chairman told you earlier in the day, they will seek guidance from the top court on this issue. How and in which way, our legal experts will say.
"As the education minister, I can say we are with the deprived, deserving candidates both from academic and political point of view," Basu stated.
The West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) on Friday said it would soon initiate the process of conducting fresh exams for all teaching and non-teaching candidates, who took part in the now-invalidated 2016 job recruitment exercise.
