Additionally, a division bench ordered CBI to look into the appointment process further and provide a report in three months.
Lawyers involved in cases related to the purported bribe-for-job case reported that the division bench of the Calcutta high court on Monday revoked the appointments of all 25,753 individuals empanelled in 2016 for various categories of positions at secondary and higher secondary schools in West Bengal.
The West Bengal School Service Commission was instructed by the bench to start a new appointment procedure. (High Court of Calcutta).
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) are looking into the alleged case.
The division bench of Justice Md. Shabbar Rashidi and Justice Debangsu Basak approved the order on Monday morning.
“The court threw out the 2016 panel as a whole. In addition to Group C and Group D employees, secondary (class 9 and 10) and higher secondary (class 11 and 12) instructors also lost their jobs, attorney Firdous Shamim, who is defending the victims of the alleged case, informed reporters outside the court.
“After the Lok Sabha elections are over, the court has ordered that a new recruitment process should begin,” he declared.
“Those who were hired by the state government after the 2016 panel’s time frame expired are also required by the court to return their entire salary within four weeks,” Shamim continued.
Lawyers indicated that the court order on Monday was several hundred pages long. It wasn’t until Monday afternoon that its copy was posted on the high court website.
When the ED detained former education minister Partha Chatterjee and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee in July 2022, the alleged case came to light. The ED claimed in its initial charge sheet, submitted in September 2022, that it had tracked down money, jewelry, and real estate worth ₹103.10 crore associated with the couple.
The CBI was instructed to look into the hiring of teaching staff and non-teaching personnel (Group C and D) by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and West Bengal School Service Commission between 2014 and 2021 by then Calcutta High Court Judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay in May 2022.
ED started a separate investigation.
The Bengali government appealed this ruling to the Supreme Court, which ordered the High Court of Calcutta to take up the matter.
Gangopadhayay left the government on March 5 and two days later became a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He is running for the East Midnapore district’s Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency.
“I have always understood that this corruption has deep roots. After the ruling on Monday, Gangopadhyay stated that such con artists ought to be executed by hanging.
“The ruling has demonstrated how the government of Mamata Banerjee traded employment like goods. Banerjee ought to step down right away, according to Bengal BJP President Sukanta Majumdar.
“We never denied that some irregularities took place and that a few people indulged in corruption,” TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh stated. It’s being looked into. However, terminating every job won’t resolve the problem.
