Kolkata, May 1 (PTI) Senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya on Wednesday said there was no issue with the West Bengal government disbursing April salaries to the 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff of state government-sponsored and aided schools, whose appointments were recently invalidated by the Calcutta High Court due to the nullification of the selection process.
The CPI(M) MP, who represented several petitioners in the case, clarified that while paying salaries for April was justified, continuing payments until the Supreme Court reaches a verdict would tantamount to defiance of the high court’s order.
“There is nothing wrong in paying the salaries to them for April. But in case the state government decides to continue paying salaries till there is a decision on the matter, it would be a defiance of the Calcutta High Court order,” Bhattacharyya told PTI.
The state government is contemplating disbursing salaries until a definitive ruling is issued, as it has appealed the high court’s decision in the Supreme Court, he said.
The Calcutta High Court’s ruling invalidated the appointments of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff hired through the State Level Selection Test (SLST) 2016 recruitment process in government-sponsored and aided schools.
The court instructed those appointed beyond the officially available vacancies or after the recruitment deadline, as well as those who submitted blank OMR sheets but still received appointments, to refund all remunerations and benefits received with 12 per cent interest within four weeks.
The state government has appealed to the Supreme Court against the high court’s decision to nullify the appointments. PTI SCH MNB
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