It took Justice Abhijit Ganguly of the Calcutta High Court less than 10 minutes to sack 1,911 Group D employees illegally appointed by the Bengal secondary education board based on recommendations of the state School Service Commission (SSC).

The court order was followed by another significant SSC announcement that it has already identified a list of an additional 803 teachers who were fraudulently recruited in 2016 and whose appointment recommendations the Commission is now ready to cancel by means of a notification next week following relevant court order.

Friday’s cancellation of appointments by the high court, the largest one-time chunk by the court so far, takes the total number of cancellations in Group-D recruitment in the wake of legal petitions in state SSC recruitment scam to 2,520. The court had scrapped 609 appointments in November last year. The SSC announcement, which concerns teachers recruited in classes IX and X, meant that this would also be the single largest sacking of teachers over and above the 120-odd teachers whose appointments have been terminated by the court previously by means of multiple orders.

The high court order was passed after the state SSC confessed in an affidavit that 2,823 OMR (optical mark recognition) sheets of Group D candidates were tampered with to provide them unfair advantage. Among them, 1,911 candidates, currently engaged as peons, matrons and laboratory attendants, were issued appointment letters by the state secondary education board based on the Commission’s recommendations, the affidavit stated.

Custodial interrogation

The Court also directed the CBI to conduct custodial interrogation of all job losers, if necessary, to get a broader understanding of the fledgling corruption network. The judge also directed the job losers to return the salaries which they accepted during service tenure in installments and forbade them from entering their respective school premises with immediate effect.

Without the leave of the court, these candidates would be barred from appearing in exams for government jobs across the country and their mandatory police verification procedure for such jobs would remain suspended, the judge remarked.

The court further directed the Commission to immediately start the process of filling up the now-created vacancies with the deserving candidates who were kept out of the job fray. This should start by publishing their names within the next 24 hours and end with the Commission sending recommendations of their names by 6 March following necessary due diligence, the judge said.

The court also instructed the SSC to ensure that waitlisted candidates, who found places in the published panel by means of OMR manipulation, should be removed.

Ex-SSC chief faces strictures

But the high point of the Justice Ganguly order was perhaps his direction that the now-jailed former SSC chairman, Subiresh Bhattacharya, during whose tenure the appointments were given, should be made party to this case.

The manipulation in the Commission’s server could not have taken place without instructions of the chairman and the CBI must lodge a case against him under the Anti-Corruption Act and interrogate him to pinpoint the individuals under whose instructions Bhattacharya may have indulged in these acts of fraud, the judge commented during the course of the hearing.

“If he refuses to name anyone, this court would consider him to be the kingpin of this corruption and he will have to face the legal consequences. And till such time he comes clean or the case is disposed off, he is forbidden from using his academic qualifications including his Ph.D degree,” Justice Ganguly stated, while adding that the court could provide central force protection for Bhattacharya’s family members if he apprehends their safety as reason for not naming his bosses and accomplices in crime.

Names made public within minutes

Within minutes of the court passing the order, the SSC had the names of the illegal job holders published on its website. The secondary education board soon followed suit with the list of the candidates’ identities alongside names of the schools they work at, their locations and other recommendation/appointment details. The prompt response to the court order was, of course, in the wake of the judge’s advice the day before to be ready with the list when he takes the matter up for hearing on Friday noon.

Barely an hour later, SSC chairman Siddhartha Majumder told reporters that the Commission is getting ready with documents to submit before a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court next week to scrap the irregular teachers’ appointments.

“The Commission has identified 952 cases of OMR sheet tampering. The highest marks enhancement over the original scores of candidates is 53. Of these, 803 candidates are presently employed and we are ready to cancel their recommendations,” Majumder said.

How regain people's trust?

Asked how badly these developments have dented the Commission’s public image, the chairman said: “Images can be quickly destroyed and it cannot be restored overnight. It will take a sustained period of good work to bring back the people’s trust.”

Advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, who is fighting a large chunk of SSC scam cases in the high court, felt even these disclosures are just the tip of the iceberg. “There is further scope of scrutiny in the Group D matter. Then there is Group C and teachers recruitment at primary, secondary and higher secondary levels. More skeletons will tumble from the closet.”

“The identified candidates have not masterminded the scam. Taking advantage of their helplessness they were only lured into it. These people should now get united to find the masterminds. The task is to identify the real culprits who organized these crimes. The judge has given a positive indication in that direction by making Subiresh Bhattacharya a party to this case and we are hopeful that something would come out of it.”

“The scheme was devised from some of the highest offices of this state,” Bhattacharya asserted.