The Calcutta High Court on Monday cancelled the appointments of over 25,700 teachers and non-teaching staff recruited to government-aided schools through the 2016 state-level selection test, saying it was impossible to know which appointment was legal and which illegal.

Among those axed are 1,113 people appointed after the expiry of the original merit lists. These appointees and “those who submitted blank OMR sheets but obtained appointments” must return within four weeks all the pay and benefits they had received from the state “along with interest calculated at 12 per cent per annum”.

The state government said it would challenge the order in the Supreme Court.

“It is shocking that, at the level of the cabinet of the State Government, decision is taken to protect employment obtained fraudulently in a selection process conducted by SSC (School Service Commission) for State Funded Schools, knowing fully well that such appointments were obtained beyond the panel (merit list) and after expiry of the panel at the bare minimum,” the division bench of Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Md Shabbar Rashidi said.

The court order said: “All appointments granted in the selection processes involved being violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India are declared null and void and cancelled…. SSC, State and Board have perseveringly non-cooperated so that even the possibility of trying to separate the grain from the chaff could be rendered nugatory.”

It added: “In such circumstances, with the possibility of the second option of attempting to sift the grain from the chaff becoming inconsequential, we are left with the only option of cancelling all appointments in the four categories (Group C, Group D, secondary and higher secondary teachers) of the selection process involved.”

Article 14 says: “The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.”

Article 16 says: “There shall be equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the State.”

The court order added: “Persons who had been appointed outside the panel, after the expiry of the panel as also those who submitted blank OMR sheets but obtained appointments, must return all remuneration and benefits received by them to the State exchequer along with interest calculated at 12 per cent per annum, from the date of receipt thereof till deposit, within a period of four weeks from date.”

The court has directed the district inspectors of schools to inform their district magistrates whether or not each of these people had returned the money.

“This judgment is illegal. I have a right to comment on the order. I am challenging the order,” chief minister Mamata Banerjee told an election rally in North Dinajpur.

“Cancelling the appointment of 26,000 boys and girls amounts to affecting one-and-a-half lakh people (in their families). They are saying that whatever one has earned during the eight years of service has to be returned within four weeks. How is that possible?”

She added: “We are challenging the order. We are moving a higher court.”

Some 24,600 teaching and non-teaching staff had been appointed based on the 2016 written test and the personality tests that followed. Including the 1,113 appointed after the expiry of the merit lists, a total of 25,713 people will lose their jobs.

The merit lists for Group C and Group D staff expired in May 2019, and those for secondary and higher secondary teachers in December 2019.

The recruitment process took place during the tenure of then SSC chairman Subires Bhattacharya, who was arrested in 2022 by the CBI on the charge of involvement in the alleged irregularities.

The SSC, responsible for the recruitments, said anomalies had been found in the case of about 5,000 appointees, and not all the 25,000.

“We told the court that there were complaints of anomalies about the recruitment of 5,000 teaching and non-teaching staff. This we ascertained from what the CBI told us,” current SSC chairman Siddhartha Majumdar told a news conference.

“We cannot understand how the court thought it would be proper to cancel the appointments of another 19,000 candidates.”

In March, the commission had told the division bench that it had begun the process of cancelling the appointments that allegedly involved anomalies.

It said it had cancelled the advisory panel recommendations based on which 808 secondary teachers, 842 Group C employees and 1,911 Group D employees had been appointed to government-aided schools following allegations that their marks had been manipulated or they had jumped ranks.

The commission had also told the court that it had identified about 770 higher secondary teachers whose appointments appeared illegal.

In its order, the division bench said: “We have given anxious consideration to the passionate plea that persons who had obtained the appointments legally would be prejudiced if we cancel the entire selection process.

“…We have hardly been left with a choice. We would rather have persons of integrity appointed through an untainted selection process than expose students to elements securing appointments through an unscrupulous selection process. Retaining appointees selected through such a dubious process would be contrary to the public interest.”

The division bench justified the CBI inquiry previously ordered by a single-judge bench, saying: “Investigation by CBI, with regard to the creation of supernumerary posts, is imperative to bring to light the nature and extent of the scam and persons that are involved therein.”