‘Didn’t separate grain from chaff’ — Bengal govt moves SC against Calcutta HC ruling in SSC ‘scam’

To let schools be without adequate teachers will adversely impact students & be a violation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, the state argued.

File photo of the Calcutta High Court | calcuttahighcourt.gov.in

New Delhi: The Calcutta High Court (HC) verdict that quashed 23,123 school service appointments Monday was issued in a “cursory manner”, the West Bengal government has said in its appeal before the Supreme Court (SC).

The state said that the HC cancelled appointments made to various government schools in 2016 to paint the entire selection process with the “same colour of irregularity, instead of separating the grains from the chaff”.

Seeking a stay on the high court’s 22 April order in the School Service Commission (SSC) scam case, the state government said the impugned ruling would paralyse the functioning of schools in the state and force a “complete collapse of the education system”.

The state is expected to mention its appeal this week and urge the apex court to grant it an early hearing in the matter.

Drawn by state standing counsel, Astha Sharma, the appeal claimed the HC judgment suffered from legal infirmities, one of them being its failure to segregate the valid appointments from the ones that were allegedly illegal.

“It has erroneously set aside the selection process in its entirety, which affects nearly 23,123 teaching and non-teaching staff in the state of West Bengal,” stated the appeal.

Besides, the HC has directed all appointees to return their remunerations and benefits received by them to the state. This direction has to be complied within four weeks, as per the HC order.

According to the state, the judgment defies the CBI enquiry report as well as the SSC’s extensive scrutiny, disclosing that 4,327 out of 23,123 appointments were irregular. While irregularity was found in 8.50 percent of teachers selected for the 9th and 10th classes, 14.47 percent appointments made for 11th and 12th were allegedly illegal.

In the group C category of non-teaching, 2,037 appointments were made, of which 783 were allegedly irregular. Similarly in the group D post 1,741 out of 3,880 recommendations were found to be against the rules, the appeal submitted.

However, in “utter disregard” of these facts, the HC cancelled appointments of teachers and non-teaching staff, causing a huge “vacuum” in the state, the appeal said.

The HC’s direction to the state to conduct a fresh selection and appointment will not be completed anytime soon, leading to students being adversely impacted, it added.

“There was no occasion for the high court to set aside or cancel the entire recruitment, when the alleged wrongful and illegal appointments identified by SSC based on the CBI report, could have, as per the law, been set aside, after hearing the aggrieved parties,” the appeal noted.

To let schools be without adequate teachers will also be a violation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, which prescribes the appropriate government to maintain the student-teacher ratio at 40:1 at the elementary level. The HC appears to have not appreciated this requirement in the law, the state told the top court.

West Bengal has also raised its grievance against the HC order directing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate the cabinet decision to create supernumerary posts. It said since the top court is seized of the matter, the HC could not have issued such a directive.

The state recalled that its appeal against one of the multiple orders issued by the HC in the alleged SSC scam was pending with the top court and the same dealt with the creation of supernumerary posts.

This appeal was against a HC order in November 2022 wherein the latter had disallowed the state to withdraw its application in which it sought permission to have supernumerary posts for the appointees whose appointments were cancelled by a previous direction of the HC.

While rejecting the state’s application, the HC had ordered a CBI probe into the origin of such a plea.

On an appeal by the state, the top court had stayed the November 2022 order of the CBI probe. Yet, the state added, in its order of 22 April, the HC, despite being aware of the pending matter before the Supreme Court, went ahead to order a CBI probe into the supernumerary posts.

(Edited by Tikli Basu)