Posted by New Delhi: The West Bengal Government has moved the Supreme Court challenging an order of the Calcutta High Court invalidating the appointment of over 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staff in the schools run and aided by the state in West Bengal.
High Court failed to appreciate the ramifications of cancelling the entire selection process: West Bengal Govt
The West Bengal Government, in its plea, before the Supreme Court has said that the High Court failed to appreciate the ramifications of cancelling the entire selection process and cancelled the appointments “arbitrarily”.
“The high court failed to appreciate the ramification of cancelling the entire selection process leading to straightaway termination of teaching and non-teaching staff from service with immediate effect, without giving sufficient time to the petitioner state to deal with such an exigency, rendering the education system at a stand-still,” the plea by the West Bengal Government said.
High Court declared selection process ‘null and void’ upon finding irregularities
The High Court had on Monday declared the selection process of teachers and non-teaching staff as “null and void” upon finding irregularities with Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets and finding that many of the appointments were made after the panel for the 2016 recruitment had expired by submitting blank OMR sheets.
Appointments were made in 2016 by West Bengal’s School Service Commission (SSC).
High Court directed illegally appointed appointees to return all remuneration, benefits
The High Court had directed the illegally appointed appointees to return all remunerations and benefits they had received with 12 per cent interest per annum within four weeks. It had also directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the appointment process and submit a report within three months and had directed the SSC to conduct fresh a fresh examinations within a fortnight from the date of the results of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
The High Court, while invalidating the appointment of over 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staff, had said that retaining the appointed teachers and non-teaching staff selected through “such a dubious process” would be contrary to public interest.