‘Tainted beyond resolution’: Backing HC, SC cancels appointment of over 25,000 teachers, staffers in Bengal

On April 22, 2024, the Calcutta High Court had cancelled the recruitment of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff by the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) after finding that OMR sheets were manipulated. The West Bengal government then moved the top court against the cancellation of the entire selection process, saying that the HC could have left out the valid appointments.

But the top court said Thursday: “For candidates not specifically found to be tainted, the entire selection process has been rightly declared null and void due to the egregious violations and illegalities, which violated Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. As such, the appointments of these candidates are cancelled.”

The court said it found no valid ground to interfere with the High Court’s direction that the services of tainted candidates must be cancelled and they should refund any salary or payment.

It added: “Candidates who are already employed need not be asked to refund or restitute any payments made to them. However, their services will be terminated. Furthermore, no candidate can be appointed once the entire examination process and results have been declared void.”

The court said that some of the appointed candidates, who do not fall within the category of tainted candidates, may have previously worked in state government departments or autonomous bodies.

“In such cases, although their appointments are cancelled, these candidates will have the right to apply to their previous departments or autonomous bodies to continue in service with those entities”, the judgement said

“These applications must be processed by the respective government departments or bodies within three months, and the candidates will be allowed to resume their positions. Further, the period between the termination of their previous appointment and their rejoining will not be considered a break in service. Their seniority and other entitlements will be preserved, and they will be eligible for increments,” it said.

The HC had allowed a disabled candidate who had been appointed, to continue in service.

Refusing to interfere with this, the SC however made it clear that “other differently-abled candidates will not be entitled to the same benefit, as it would contradict legal principles and the rule of law.” It added that “in consideration of their disability, these candidates will be permitted to continue and will receive wages until the fresh selection process and appointments are completed.”

“The disabled candidates mentioned in the previous paragraph will be allowed to participate in the fresh selection process, if required, with age relaxation and other concessions. Similarly, other candidates who are not specifically tainted will also be eligible to participate, with appropriate age relaxation,” the court said.

The court pulled up the WBSSC over its decision to destroy the OMR sheets without scanned mirror images being preserved in the server.

“The contradictory stance of WBSSC on the possession and destruction of scanned/mirror copies of the OMR sheets reflect an attempt to cover up illegalities and lapses in the selection process of SSC,” it said.

The bench also said: “It is clear that there is a discrepancy between the scanned OMR sheets recovered from the three hard disks in (Nysa employee) Pankaj Bansal’s possession and the marks recorded in WBSSC’s computer/records. This discrepancy has been acknowledged and accepted by WBSSC.”

It added: “These issues, highlighted in both the impugned judgment and our findings, clearly point to large-scale manipulation and tampering with results, including rank-jumping, discrepancies in marks, the issuance of appointment letters to candidates not on the panel, and appointments made beyond the panel’s validity period. In spite of the factual background and the credible evidence indicating irregularities, WBSSC initially did try and cover up the lapses and illegalities.”

The court said: “The cover up itself has made the verification and ascertainment more difficult or rather impossible given the scale of camouflage and dressing up done at each stage. We are convinced that the entire selection process was intentionally compromised due to the illegalities involved.”