Crime Today News
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Calcutta High Court’s April 2024 order terminating the appointment of about 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staff by West Bengal’s School Service Commission, reported Live Law.
“Regarding findings of this case, entire selection process is vitiated by manipulation and fraud and credibility and legitimacy is denuded,” Bar and Bench quoted a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjiv Kumar as saying.
The court added: “Tainted candidates must be terminated and appointments were resultant of cheating and thus fraud.”
In April 2024, the High Court declared as null and void the 2016 State Level Selection Test for recruitment in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided schools, ordering the cancellation of about 25,000 appointments made through it.
The petitioners before the High Court had alleged that the jobs were given to candidates in return for money instead of candidates who had qualified in the recruitment process.
The High Court bench had passed its direction based on the findings of a re-evaluation of the Optical Mark Recognition sheets from the 2016 recruitment exam in the case.
The re-evaluation found that the selected teachers had been recruited against blank Optical Mark Recognition sheets.
One hundred and twenty-six appeals were filed before the Supreme Court against the High Court order, according to Bar and Bench.
The West Bengal government had also moved the top court, contending that the appointments had been cancelled arbitrarily.
In May, the Supreme Court stayed the High Court order but allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation to continue its inquiry into the case. It directed the central agency not to take any coercive action, such as arresting suspects.
In its order on Thursday, the Supreme Court directed that a fresh selection process for teaching and non-teaching should be completed within three months.
“The fresh selection process can also have relaxations for untainted candidates,” said the bench.
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