Bengal teachers would lose their jobs in 24,000 after a High Court ruling on unauthorized hiring

In the case of the jobs scandal, the Calcutta High Court on Monday annulled the West Bengal School Service Commission’s 2016 teacher recruitment panel in its whole. The court has dismissed over 24,000 jobs. A division bench made up of Justices Debangsu Basak and Md. Shabbar Rashidi declared during the hearing that teachers who were hired without authorization must return their pay within four weeks. The district magistrate is in charge of obtaining payment from these educators. All appointments of teaching and non-teaching staff to different state-government-sponsored and aided schools in Bengal, made in 2016 following a WBSC entrance examination, are included in the canceled recruiting panel.

In addition, the bench mandated that up to 23 lakh OMR sheets from the previously administered recruiting entrance exam be reevaluated. It denied a few appellants’ request for the ruling to be temporarily stayed. The panel additionally ordered the CBI to conduct additional research into the appointment process and provide a report within three months. It has been requested that the WBSSC start a new appointment procedure. The WBSSC held a State Level Selection Test in 2016 with over 23 lakh participants to fill over 24,000 positions.

Hundreds of job seekers were waiting outside the courthouse for the ruling, and many were ecstatic when it was announced. The division bench deferred its decision after the High Court wrapped up the case’s hearing on March 20. According to a previous court ruling, the CBI was looking into the case. Due to his suspected involvement in the scam, the federal agency has detained Partha Chatterjee, the former minister of education for Bengal, in 2022. Abhijit Ganguly, a BJP candidate from Tamluk in Bengal in the current Lok Sabha elections and a former judge of the Calcutta High Court, had directed the CBI to look into the matter.