The Supreme Court gave a huge jolt to state-run and state-aided schools in West Bengal, upholding the Calcutta High Court verdict striking down the appointments of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff. On April 3, 2025, the apex court pronounced a judgment confirming that the recruitment process was permeated with enormous irregularities to make such appointments unsustainable.
Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar, on the bench, said that the entire selection process was rotten to its core and practised in a foul manner. The court ruled that so much integrity of the recruitment process had been compromised that it could not be upheld legally. Therefore, the appointments made via this controversial process are cancelled.
The case is based on the 2016 West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment drive to fill up the posts of teachers and non-teaching staff. About 23 lakh candidates had applied for 24,640 vacancies. Nevertheless, a disturbing 25,753 appointment letters were weighed out, more than the advertised vacancies. In April 2024, the Calcutta High Court brought to the fore allegations that the recruitment process had tampered with OMR sheets and rank jumped, with the appointments being annulled.
After the high court’s decision, several petitions challenging the ban were filed, including one by the West Bengal government. The hearings on the matter continued in the Supreme Court from December 19, 2024, to January and February 2025. The verdict in the case came on 10th February 2025 and dwas elivered on 3rd April 2025.
The Supreme Court terminated the appointments; however, it also provided relief for the affected people by instructing that they be not asked to return salaries or benefits having been earlier received. This is a blow to the Mamata Banerjee government and underlines the fact that recruitment processes should be transparent.
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