A political controversy has erupted in West Bengal following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Calcutta High Court’s ruling that annulled over 25,000 appointments made by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) in 2016. The decision, which affects secondary and higher secondary teachers as well as non-teaching staff in Group-C and Group-D categories, has sparked widespread debate and criticism from various political quarters.
On April 22, 2024, the Calcutta High Court’s division bench, led by Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi, had cancelled 25,753 appointments made by WBSSC. The ruling came after it was found that many of these appointments were tainted by corruption, with candidates allegedly securing jobs by paying money, making it impossible to distinguish between legitimate and ineligible applicants.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court, in a division bench led by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar, upheld the Calcutta High Court’s decision. This ruling has triggered a political uproar, with both the ruling and opposition parties in West Bengal reacting strongly to the judgment.
Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya, a senior advocate in the Calcutta High Court and Rajya Sabha member from CPI(M), expressed regret that some “eligible” candidates would suffer due to the ruling. He stated that the scale of corruption in the recruitment process made it impossible to separate genuine candidates from ineligible ones. “The nature of institutional corruption in the entire selection process was so rampant that it became impossible to segregate the ‘genuine’ candidates from ‘ineligible’ candidates. The apex court repeatedly questioned WBSSC on whether such segregation was possible or not, but the commission was unable to come up with any definite answer,” Bhattacharya said.
The BJP’s state president, Dr. Sukanta Majumdar, who is also the Union Minister of State, accused the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government of shielding corrupt practices. “The genuine candidates will now have to suffer because of the sustained efforts of the Mamata Banerjee-led state government to protect ineligible candidates who secured jobs by paying money to TMC leaders,” Majumdar said. He called for the resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, demanding she take full responsibility for what he described as a “huge corruption.”
Meanwhile, Biswajit Deb, a senior Trinamool Congress leader and the advocate general of Mizoram, suggested that the state government should file a review petition in the Supreme Court to address the impact on genuine candidates. “The basic principle of the legal system is that 1,000 culprits can escape, but not even one innocent should be punished. But following the verdict, now the genuine candidates will have to suffer. So I think that the state government should immediately file a review petition at the apex court,” Deb argued.
However, Bhattacharya opposed the idea of filing a review petition, citing the potential for further delays and the unnecessary expenditure of public funds. He pointed out that such a move would prolong the legal process and burden the state’s finances.
At the time of filing the report, there was no official reaction from CM Mamata Banerjee regarding the Supreme Court’s decision or the ongoing political fallout. The state government has yet to confirm whether it will pursue a review petition in the matter.
(With IANS inputs)
