Mamta Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, claimed that BJP officials have been influencing the judges and rulings, branding the Calcutta High Court (HC) verdict that nullified the appointments of teachers selected through the 2016 recruitment test “illegal” on Monday.
Mamta said, one can stand by those people who lost their jobs. She further announced that the Trinamool administration would appeal the HC decision to the Supreme Court (SC).
Earlier, the HC ruled that all appointments made during the 2016 recruitment process to choose candidates for West Bengal government-sponsored and aided secondary and higher secondary schools were void. The School Service Commission (SSC) has been directed by the court to hold new hiring.
All appointments made by the SSC to the groups of group C and D staffers and instructors of classes 9, 10, 11, and 12 as well as staff members selected through the State Level Selection-2016 (SLST) where anomalies were discovered have also been deemed void.
The SC further mandated that individuals who were hired without authorization refund their income within six weeks. Following the consideration of petitions and appeals over alleged anomalies in the applicant selection process during the 2016 recruitment campaign, the court rendered its decision.
The case was being heard by a division bench that the SC had ordered to be established by the Chief Judge of the HC. On 20th March, the matter’s hearing was ended, and the division bench postponed deciding.
Following the arrest of Bengal BJP leader Partha Chatterjee, a Trinamool Congress leader who held the position of education minister in Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet until his arrest on 23rd July 2022, the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) teacher recruitment scandal came to light.
An Enforcement Directorate (ED) squad raided Partha Chatterjee’s close acquaintances in Kolkata earlier on 16th February.
Following the discovery of jewellery and cash valued at over Rs. 1 crore and Rs. 21 crore from the Kolkata home of Arpita Mukherjee, a close assistant to the former education minister, Chatterjee was taken into custody.
An investigation into Chatterjee and his assistant Arpita Mukherjee’s involvement in the West Bengal SSC recruitment fraud is ongoing.
Abhijit Gangopadhyay demands Mamata step down. Abhijit Gangopadhyay, a former HC judge running on the BJP ticket for the Lok Sabha, called for Mamata Banerjee’s immediate resignation following the ruling.
He referred to the ruling that cancelled all appointments made in West Bengal government-sponsored and assisted schools through the State Level Selection Test-2016 (SLST) recruiting process as an “appropriate judgement.”
A single bench led by Gangopadhyay had already ordered a CBI investigation into alleged irregularities in the recruiting process.
He claimed that the entire group of fraudsters in the state administration, who carried out the scheme must be hanged.