'Tainted beyond repair': Supreme Court upholds Calcutta HC's cancellation of 25K school staff appointments

New Delhi: In a big setback to the Mamata Banerjee government, the Supreme Court on Thursday declared the entire 2016 recruitment process to the post of teachers and other staff in schools in West Bengal as "vitiated" and "tainted beyond repair".

A bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar upheld the Calcutta High Court's April 22, 2024 judgment, which en bloc set aside the entire selection process conducted by the West Bengal Central School Service Commission for recruitment of non teaching staff in Group C and D and Assistant Teachers for Classes IX and X, as well as Classes XI and XII.

In strong observations, the court said the selection process was intentionally compromised due to the illegalities involved. 

Rejecting the appeal by the state government and others, the bench said, "In our opinion, this is a case wherein the entire selection process has been vitiated and tainted beyond resolution. Manipulations and frauds on a large scale, coupled with the attempted cover-up, have dented the selection process beyond repair and partial redemption. The credibility and legitimacy of the selection are denuded."

The bench also upheld the HC's direction to refund the salaries paid to the tainted candidates, saying "Since their appointments were the result of fraud, this amounts to cheating. Therefore, we see no justification to alter this direction".

The court also said the candidates, who were previously employed elsewhere, would be allowed to join back to their past posts within three months. 

It relied upon the CBI investigation reports and Justice Bag committee report, related to irregularities in the process on appointment of 25,000 teaching and other staff.

In a major embarassment to the ruling party, West Bengal's then Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and others were arrested in the investigation carried out by the CBI on a direction of the High Court and huge cash were also recovered.

In its 41-page judgment, the court pointed out the WBSSC has been candid enough to admit; rank jumping, that is, to say candidates having lower rank were preferred over those having higher rank, out of panel appointments, that is, candidates who are not in the panel of shortlisted candidates have been recommended and appointed, candidates who were not recommended by WBSSC were appointed by the Board, and manipulation of the OMR scores.   

The court found admittedly, the OMR sheets for the candidates who had applied for non teaching Groups C and D posts were also destroyed, when there was no justification for their destruction.

"Thus, the destruction of the physical OMR sheets and the failure to maintain scanned/mirror images of the OMR sheets are significant factors which were rightly taken into consideration by the High Court. We concur," the bench said.

The court also said there is no doubt that the counselling process and appointments made to the post of Assistant Teachers for classes IX-X and XI-XII were made after the expiry of the panel. 

"This is illegal and contrary to the rules. Reliance on the orders/judgments of the High Court in stray cases of rank jumping, where the High Court directed to appoint candidates after the expiry of the validity of the panel, would not have any significant impact," the bench said.    

The court pointed out the contradictory stance of WBSSC on the possession and destruction of scanned or mirror copies of the OMR sheets reflected an attempt to cover up illegalities and lapses in the selection process.

It also noted an excess number of appointment letters were issued over and above the recommendations.

"In spite of the factual background and the credible evidence indicating irregularities, WBSSC initially did try and cover up the lapses and illegalities. The cover up itself has made the verification and ascertainment more difficult or rather impossible given the scale of camouflage and dressing up done at each stage. We are convinced that the entire selection process was intentionally compromised due to the illegalities involved," the bench said.

For candidates not specifically found to be tainted, the bench said, the entire selection process has been rightly declared null and void due to the egregious violations and illegalities, which violated Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. 

"As such, the appointments of these candidates are cancelled. However, candidates who are already employed need not be asked to refund or restitute any payments made to them. However, their services will be terminated. Furthermore, no candidate can be appointed once the entire examination process and results have been declared void," it said.