The Bengal government on Wednesday moved a special leave petition (SLP) against Calcutta High Court’s order quashing the recruitment of 23,123 teaching and non-teaching employees for illegalities in appointment.
The state contended that the ruling will lead to a “huge vacuum” in schools and bring the education system to a “standstill”.
Bengal standing counsel at the Supreme Court Astha Sharma said the high court had clubbed a host of issues and, instead of segregating the valid appointees from the illegal ones, erroneously set aside the entire selection process.
Although a division bench of Calcutta High Court on Monday cancelled the jobs of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching employees in government-aided schools, Sharma’s petition mentioned the figure “23,123”.
In Calcutta, state school service commission (SSC) chairperson Siddhartha Majumdar said: “We mentioned the figure of 23,123 because the commission had originally recommended that many candidates for appointments. Later, the number swelled following various court orders and more teaching and non-teaching employees were recruited. Another petition, which deals with an allegation that the state secondary education board had appointed 990 candidates without the knowledge of the commission, was filed in the high court. We did not include these candidates in our SLP.”
Whatever the Supreme Court decides, he said, will be applicable to the entire appointment process. “The commission only mentioned the figure which was recommended for appointment.”
Bengal’s petition in the apex court said the high court had erroneously directed persons who had been appointed outside the panel — after the expiry of the panel (merit list) — and those who were recruited despite submitting blank OMR sheets must return the salary, along with interest calculated at 12 per cent per annum from the date of receipt, to the state.
The money has to be returned within four weeks from the date of the order.
“The Hon’ble high court, basis oral submissions, without any affidavit on record, has proceeded to in a cursory manner, direction to cancel all appointments of teachers and non-teaching staff, in utter disregard to the fact that the same will lead to a huge vacuum in the State Schools, unless new selection process is completed by the SSC, especially when the new academic session is on its brim, leading to the students being adversely impacted,” Sharma’s petition says.
The state submitted that the high court judgment violated the Supreme Court’s ruling in the 2006 “Inderpreet Singh Kahlon & Ors vs. State of Punjab” case that the entire selection process could not be cancelled.
The petition says there was no reason to set aside/cancel the entire recruitment process when the allegedly wrongful appointments, identified by the SSC based on a CBI report, could have been set aside.
“However, the Hon’ble court has instead of separating the grain from the chaff has proceeded to paint the entire selection process with the same colour of irregularity, leaving the State Govt. as the authority responsible to maintain the teacher-pupil ratio in schools in a precarious position.
“The Hon’ble high court has further transgressed the issues before it and proceeded to direct an investigation by the CBI into the policy decision taken by the cabinet for the creation of conditional supernumerary posts for accommodating the teachers whose appointment was found to be irregular. Even though eventually no appointments were made in those posts…” the petition says.
Further, the state said the high court had failed to realise the ramifications of cancelling the entire selection process without giving sufficient time to the government to deal with such an exigency, bringing the education system to a standstill.
“Though as per the CBI enquiry report and the affidavit by the SSC irregularity in appointments was only found for 4,327 teachers and non-teaching staff, the impugned order on its own wisdom strikes at the legal and valid selections... which was not found to be riddled with any anomaly as per the chargesheet filed by CBI concluding the investigation,” the petition says.