On Monday, the Calcutta High Court will rule on appeals and petitions concerning purported anomalies in the 2016 recruitment process that resulted in the selection of applicants for government-sponsored and assisted secondary and higher secondary schools in West Bengal.
Following a high court order, the CBI began an investigation into the case and detained former state education minister Partha Chatterjee as well as a few officials who worked for the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) at the time of the alleged scam.
A division bench comprising justices Debangsu Basak and Md Shabbar Rashidi will on Monday pronounce judgement on a large number of petitions and appeals, which were heard together, in connection with the school jobs recruitment process, an official at the high court said.
The division bench, formed by the Chief Justice of the high court on a direction of the Supreme Court, extensively heard numerous petitions and appeals relating to the selection of candidates for appointment by the SSC in the categories of teachers of classes 9, 10, 11 and 12 and group-C and D staffers through State Level Selection Test-2016 (SLST).
Hearing in the matters was concluded on March 20 and judgement was reserved by the division bench.
In response to writ petitions from candidates who took part in the SLST-2016 but were not selected for jobs, a single bench led by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay ordered the CBI to look into claims of irregularities in the hiring procedure.
After noticing irregularities, the high court also issued an order terminating the employment of several teaching and non-teaching staff members.
In order to address the petitions it had received in relation to these matters, the Supreme Court had asked the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to form a division bench on November 9, 2023, in order to hear all of the appeals and petitions related to the hiring procedure through SLST-2016 and provide prompt resolution.
In order to give the division bench time to decide on the disputes, the top court had granted protection to the appointments, which had been terminated by the high court, in its order.
Following the Supreme Court’s directive to complete the investigation into the matters within two months of the date of its order, the CBI finished the investigation and presented a report to the high court.
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