The Trinamool Congress expressed displeasure with people on whose petition Calcutta High Court on Friday imposed an interim stay on the allowance for those in Groups C and D rendered unemployed by the Supreme Court’s April verdict on the School Service Commission recruitments.

Trinamool state general secretary Kunal Ghosh attacked the Bengal Opposition for moving court against chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s decision to help out the Group C and Group D staff who had lost their jobs.

The Opposition parties were critical of Mamata and her government for attempting such relief, allegedly to cover up the corruption that had purportedly taken place in the recruitment process.

“According to the Supreme Court verdict, 26,000 jobs were gone. One section had said every job must go, another had celebrated ghoulishly. The honourable chief minister stood by them. Stood by whom? Those on whose lives pain and darkness had descended,” Ghosh said.

“Those from Groups C and D, who suddenly lost jobs and were in big trouble along with their families, to provide some financial security to them by way of an interim allowance, some relief had been arranged by the chief minister. That, too, was objected to and today, honourable Justice Amrita Sinha of Calcutta High Court issued an interim stay even on that,” said Ghosh. “To get even that allowance stopped, who all went to court? Who went to court? Notice them, identify them, remember them.”

Ghosh reaffirmed the TMC’s respect for courts, judges and the judiciary, but slammed those who approached them against the Trinamool dispensation.

“But friends, do remember who your well-meaning, compassionate companions truly are on this path. Identify who will stand by you in your journey, and who will have your jobs stolen, interim allowances blocked… will make the people suffer, make them shed tears, and with that play political games…. Identify them, remember them,” said Ghosh.

Congress’s Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury accused Mamata of doing such things deliberately to mislead the people.

“She has been the chief minister for 14 years. It cannot be that in her departments and the government, not one person understands the law or the rules. Knowing everything, understanding everything, she has been deceiving the people of Bengal,” said the Congress Working Committee member.

Asserting that people of Bengal preferred employment to handouts and an honest livelihood to alms, he said: “You knew this process was illegal even before you began it, but you began it anyway and gave these desperate young people false hope, which got destroyed soon after.”

“This is the biggest crime, and Mamata Banerjee is the criminal who committed it,” added Chowdhury.

CPM Rajya Sabha member Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, also a senior advocate fighting this government tooth and nail in courts on numerous matters, said: “The way the allowance was announced was clearly in disobedience of the Supreme Court order and disregard of Article 14 of the Constitution. According to the Supreme Court verdict, money had to be taken back from these people. Instead, paying them more from the state exchequer… that was a most illegal idea,” he said.

Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the Opposition, said the chief minister had been doing such things since she ascended to the post of chief minister.

“From the chief minister’s relief fund, ₹10,000, 15,000, 20,000, 25,000… she has given in various places. There are two to three such places that remain, I know. She keeps doing this,” said the BJP leader.

“This is a complete financial crime. Giving out the state’s money, made from the sale of bonds, is simply not possible this way. I welcome this interim stay…. She has been doing many such illegal things since 2011, and this is the first time a court reined it in,” Adhikari added.