NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court of India has ordered the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) to make the list of “tainted” teachers public. This is a big step forward in the ongoing West Bengal teacher recruitment scam. The court cancelled these people’s 2016 job offers because there was a lot of fraud and deception. The WBSSC has a week to follow the order.
A group of judges, Sanjay Kumar and Satish Chandra Sharma, gave the order on Thursday at a hearing on a plea by teachers of Classes 11 and 12. The petitioners, who were found to be “untainted” and allowed to apply again for a new job, were worried that a recent WBSSC notice was “unclear” and could let fake candidates take the test.
The court took a firm stance after Senior Advocate Kalyan Banerjee, who was representing the WBSSC, first said that the list had been made public, but then changed his mind a few minutes later. The judges stressed how important it is to be open and honest, and they asked the commission if it was willing to give them the list to make sure these candidates don’t get hired again. The court noted in its written judgment that Banerjee then consented to make the list public.
This lawsuit is part of a bigger effort to stop a recruitment scam that the Supreme Court has said “vitiated” the whole selection process. The court’s ruling on April 3 canceled the jobs of more than 25,000 teachers and other staff members, saying the fraud and attempted cover-up were “beyond repair.” The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which looked into the issue, said that candidates paid leaders of the ruling Trinamool Congress for jobs and, in some cases, sent in blank answer sheets that were later changed.
The court told the state to finish a new hiring process by December 31, but it also let the “untainted” instructors stay on the job until that date. The new approach already has written tests set for September 7 and 14.
The Supreme Court’s most recent judgment is a direct reaction to the concerns of deserving candidates and a strong message that the courts are dedicated to keeping public appointments honest. The next hearing in the matter is set for October 8.