School Jobs for Cash Scam: Supreme Court orders interim stay on cancellation of 24,000 appointments

The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the Calcutta High Court order that cancelled close to 24,000 jobs provided under the 2016 Recruitment Process by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC). [State of West Bengal vs Baishakhi Bhattacharyya Chatterjee and Ors.].A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud with Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra called for an expedited hearing in the case and listed the matter for hearing on July 16.The Court ordered that the ad interim protection would continue provided that any person found to have been appointed illegally and has continued as a consequence of the top court's order shall undertake to refund the salary drawn by them if the case is eventually decided against them.."Bearing in mind the present stage of the matter, we are of the view that an early disposal of these proceedings would be in the interest of justice. Issue notice. Notice to the private parties shall be published in the English and Bangla newspapers widely circulated in the State at the cost and expense of the State. List the Petitions for hearing and final disposal on 16 July 2024. In the meantime, the ad interim protection which was granted by this Court by its order dated 9 November 2023 is continued subject to the express stipulation that any person who is found to have been appointed illegally and is continued as a consequence of the present order shall undertake to refund the entire amount of the salary", the Court said. .After Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta expressed apprehensions about the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe stalling due to the stay order, the Court clarified that the CBI probe will be allowed to continue though there cannot be any coercive action against West Bengal government officials."The judgment of the High Court dated 22 April 2024 shall remain stayed till the disposal of the present proceedings", the order states.Notice was issued to the State of West Bengal in the matter..The Bench was hearing an appeal against a Calcutta High Court ruling which, while holding the recruitment invalid, had ordered the 24,000 candidates to return the salaries they received.The case arose out the school jobs for cash scam.The Supreme Court had in April restrained the CBI from taking any "precipitative action" against the officials concerned..Senior advocates Rakesh Dwivedi and Neeraj Kishan Kaul, representing the West Bengal government, argued against the cancellation of appointments by the High Court. They highlighted lapses on part of the High Court and emphasized the adverse effects of its order. "Without criminality everyone gets roped in. Cabinet decision is thrown out and where are we headed in parliamentary democracy?! Cabinet note says the waitlisted appointments are subject to court. This is grave!...No ocassion, no issue. Can such an order be sustained is my submission! It is not even CBI's case that 25,000 appointments are all illegal. Everything, teacher child ratio is gone for a toss," Kaul said..Senior advocates Jaideep Gupta and Sanjay Hegde, representing WBSSC, challenged the High Court's jurisdiction. Hegde highlighted that the recruited teachers did not even receive a notice."If we lose a whole chunk or generation in between we will lose senior headmasters and examiners for the future. Lordships may bear in mind that many of them did not get any notice. No general notice," he said..Senior Advocates Ranjit Kumar, Shyam Divan, PS Patwalia, Dushyant Dave and Madhavi Diwan addressed the Court on behalf of some of the affected teachers. They highlighted the consequences of the High Court's decision, emphasizing the potential loss of experienced educators and the detrimental effects on individuals' careers and livelihoods..Dave expressed shock at the High Court order and underlined that the proceedings were a consequence of an order by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who had given a public interview stating that he will send the appointed teachers back. He further challenged the admissibility of the evidence, stating, "When lordships remanded the matter, expressly recorded that no evidence. Only evidence is this this digital that is inadmissible. The certificate is completely dehors 65B (of Evidence Act). We are being compelled. Grave injustice."Later in the hearing, Dave once again mentioned the alleged injustice caused by the single judge.The CJI, however, urged Dave to maintain decorum. He even warned of not issuing a stay order. Levelling allegations at the High Court judges will not help, he added."Mr Dave we are not on conduct of Mr Gangopadhyay. We have been here all morning listening to nitty gritties. Please show some decorum. Okay no stay for now, we will issue notice and keep in July. We are finding it difficult to have an orderly hearing and now there is a slinging match going on. No stay or anything. How sensitive or politically fraught the matter is we are lawyers at the end of the day. Levelling allegations at the HC judges will not help," the CJI said..After the arguments, the Court determined that it had heard enough for the purpose of dismissing or staying the order, and accordingly, passed its order..The infamous school jobs for cash scam pertains to various illegal recruitments allegedly made in the primary and secondary schools across the State during the recruitment process of 2016.Over 23 lakh candidates had appeared in the examinations for the 24,000 job vacancies in 2016. It had been alleged before the High Court that most candidates were given jobs after wrongly evaluating the OMR Sheets.The High Court Bench of Justices Debangsu Basak and Md Shabbar Rashidi noted that there was no clarity which of the 23 lakh answer sheets were evaluated properly and therefore, ordered re-evaluation of all the sheets of the recruitment entrance exams while cancelling the appointments made. It also ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to continue with the investigation into the recruitment scam.Several persons including the former education minister Partha Chatterjee and Trinamool Congress (TMC) party MLAs Manik Bhattacharya and Jiban Krishna Saha are behind bars for their alleged involvement in the scam along with suspended TMC leaders like Santanu Kundu and Kuntal Ghosh..School Jobs for Cash: Calcutta High Court denies bail to former minister Partha Chatterjee.[Read order]