Earlier today, the high court declared all appointments null and void in the selection of candidates in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided secondary and higher secondary schools through a 2016 recruitment process.The court has ordered the School Service Commission (SSC) to conduct fresh recruitments.
All appointments by the SSC in the categories of teachers of classes 9, 10, 11 and 12 and group-C and D staffers through the State Level Selection Test-2016 (SLST) where irregularities were found have also been declared null and void.
The high court further ordered that those who were recruited illegally will have to return their salary within six weeks.
The court pronouced its judgement after hearing petitions and appeals relating to alleged irregularities in the selection of candidates in the 2016 recruitment process. A division bench, formed by chief justice of the high court at the direction of Supreme Court, was hearing the matter. The hearing in the matter was concluded on March 20 and judgement was reserved by the division bench.
The West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) teacher recruitment scam came to light after the arrest of Bengal BJP leader Partha Chatterjee, a Trinamool Congress leader who served as the education minister in Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet until his arrest on July 23, 2022.
Earlier on February 16, a team of the Enforcement Directorate conducted raids on close associates of Partha Chatterjee in Kolkata. Chatterjee was arrested after Rs 21 crore in cash and jewellry worth above Rs 1 crore was recovered from the Kolkata residence of Arpita Mukherjee, a close aide of the former education minister. Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee, are facing a probe into the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment scam.
SSC scam: Judicial custody of Partha Chatterjee, Arpita Mukherjee extended till August 31
Abhijit Gangopadhyay calls for Mamata’s resignation
Former high court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who is contesting Lok Sabha elections on BJP ticket, demanded “immediate resignation” of Mamata Banerjee after the verdict.
He called the order cancelling all appointments made through the recruitment process of the State Level Selection Test-2016 (SLST) in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided schools an “appropriate judgment.”
Gangopadhyay, whose single bench had previously ordered CBI probe into alleged irregularities in the recruitment process, asserted that “the entire group of fraudsters in the state administration” responsible for perpetrating the scam “should be hanged”.
(With inputs from agencies)
Effigy of Partha Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee installed in Saraswati Puja pandal