‘Illegal process, widespread illegalities’ — what Calcutta HC said in West Bengal SSC ‘scam’ ruling

HC has invalidated 25,757 appointments in govt-aided schools & asked that their salaries be refunded with 12% per annum interest within 4 weeks. Mamata promises to challenge order in SC.

Calcutta High Court (File Photo/ANI)

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court’s directive to invalidate 25,757 appointments in government-aided schools, made as part of the alleged West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) scam, has put the state’s Mamata Banerjee government in the dock. 

Earlier this week, the division bench of justices Debangsu Basak and Md Shabbar Rashidi scrapped the 2016 SSC panel to appoint Group C and Group D school staff and assistant teachers for Class 9 to 12 after calling it “illegal” and “unconstitutional”. 

The judgment further directed those whose appointments had been cancelled to refund their salaries with an interest of 12 percent per annum within four weeks. It also gave state authorities 15 days to conduct fresh recruitment for the vacancies.

The case pertains to alleged irregularities in the recruitment process of the West Bengal SSC. In 2021, former Calcutta HC judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who is now the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency, gave a series of directions to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct an inquiry into the allegations. Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), too, began investigating the cases. 

Several leaders of Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC), including former minister Partha Chatterjee, have been arrested in the case.

The development is a major setback to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her TMC, which is currently busy campaigning for Lok Sabha polls.

Hours after the court’s scathing observations, Banerjee said her government would challenge the “illegal” ruling in the Supreme Court. 

“Those who lost their jobs should not worry, be depressed, or anxious about their lives,” she said. “We are challenging the entire verdict because it puts the lives of 26,000 people and their families at risk, taking the number of affected to 1.5-2 lakh. After working for eight years, they have been asked to return their salaries in four weeks. Is it possible to do this?”

In its 282-page ruling, the Calcutta HC pointed to “anomalies” in the appointment process starting from the tender process, noting that the state government had accepted the “widespread illegalities in the selection process and that the numbers of persons who received appointments illegally could not be determined with exactitude”.

“They had resolved to create supernumerary posts to accommodate the illegal appointees. In other words, the state has resolved to expend taxpayers’ money to accord sanction to an employment secured dishonestly,” the bench said.

In its arguments, CBI claimed that it found during investigations that the West Bengal SSC had held a closed-door tender process and given a two-line contract to M/s Nysa to scan and evaluate the OMR sheets. The company, in turn, handed the task over to another agency, Data Scantech, the CBI said.

But SSC opposed this saying it had neither tasked M/s Nysa with it nor authorised it to delegate it further. It also argued that appointment by tender wasn’t mandatory but only desirable and that its absence could not vitiate the selection process.

The HC, however, rejected the SSC’s claim that it didn’t issue a tender to M/s Nysa citing SSC’s court documents. In that, the commission had submitted photocopies of tender documents and work orders issued to the company.

Significantly, the court noted that work was awarded to M/s Nysa “ostensibly on the ground of it being the lowest tender from amongst a chosen few who were asked to participate”.

Holding that M/s Nysa was appointed without an open tender, the HC observed the parameters or qualifications required to participate in the process were not disclosed to the court despite requests.

“No explanation has been provided by SSC in course of the hearing as to how and why such a course of action had been undertaken in identifying the instrumentality who was to scan and evaluate the OMR sheets. Documents that had been made available on record does not suggest that, competency, efficiency and whether M/s NYSA has the requisite expertise to undertake such exercise was not considered by SSC at all,” the HC bench held, saying SSC engaged in a closed-door tender process.

Those with lower scores, who submitted blank answer sheets appointed — what court said

In its order, the HC took note of SSC’s “false” claim that mirror images of the OMR sheets were not preserved. Although CBI’s previous search on SSC premises, done on the HC’s orders, did not lead to the OMR sheets, a subsequent search conducted during its probe allegedly led to “mirror images” of them stored in hard disks seized from M/s Nysa’s office, the court said. 

Mirror images are copies of system files, operational data, and programmes stored for backup. 

In its ruling, the court said those who scored lower marks and submitted blank answer sheets or were not even on the 2016 panel were appointed.  

Shockingly, the merit list published by the SSC never disclosed the marks obtained by the candidates, the court said.

The bench also factored in findings made in the Justice Bagh committee report to say that the entire selection process was vitiated because it didn’t follow due process. 

The panel, appointed by the high court and led by retired Justice Ranjit Bag, was the first to name former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee in connection with the alleged scam. 

“Total beneficiaries of the illegalities are yet to be identified and rendered improbable given the stand of SSC, Board and State. Recruitment Rules governing the four categories had never been adhered to either in letter or spirit. These illegalities have been established by the Justice Bag committee report, reports and affidavits of SSC, reports and affidavits of (the) CBI as well as conduct of (the) state,” the order said.

In scathing remarks aimed at the Mamata Banerjee government, the HC further said it was shocking that “at the level of the cabinet of the state government, (a) decision is taken to protect employment obtained fraudulently in a selection process conducted by SSC for state-funded schools, knowing fully well that such appointments were obtained beyond the panel and after (the) expiry of the panel, at the bare minimum”.

When contacted for his response, advocate Arunava Banerjee, who was part of the Justice Bag Committee, said it would be “nearly impossible” to identify who was a meritorious candidate and who wasn’t because the evidence was now tampered with.

Salaries for Group C staff range from Rs 20,000 to 23,000 and for Group D up to Rs 25,000. Meanwhile, for the assistant teachers for Classes 9 to 12, it starts at Rs 50,000, the lawyer said. 

He also believes directing district magistrates to recover salaries at 12 percent interest per annum was “easier said than done”. 

“By the judgment, one can gauge the magnitude of corruption in the education system of our state,” he said, adding that there were likely “many more government officials, TMC leaders and bureaucrats who have played a role in the illegal appointments for bribes”.

 (Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)