SC verdict in West Bengal teacher recruitment case is a matter of reinforcing trust in public jobs

On Tuesday, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court gave relief to the school teachers and non-teaching staff whose appointments were cancelled by a Calcutta High Court order of April. The HC’s decision had cited irregularities in the West Bengal School Service Commission’s procedures. The apex court’s order does not exonerate the SSC. It rightly said that it would be unfair to set aside all the appointments because the tainted and untainted ones have not yet been segregated. In a stinging criticism of the SSC and the West Bengal government, the Chief Justice of India-led bench described their conduct as a “systemic fraud”. The CBI will continue its investigation and the school staff appointed in breach of due procedures will have to refund the salaries. Meanwhile, the West Bengal government would do well to heed the SC’s larger message: “Ultimately what happens is that today public jobs are so scarce and so valued, today, that if the faith of the community in public employment goes then nothing remains.”

In 2014, the SSC announced a state-level selection test would be used to recruit teachers for West Bengal’s state-run schools. The process which began two years later invited criticism and petitions were filed in the Calcutta High Court alleging that the mark sheets were not evaluated properly. The HC ordered an investigation by the CBI, which opened a can of worms. The SSC, reportedly, told the agency that it had destroyed the OMR answer sheets — answers to multiple choice questions in these sheets are scanned by computers, and not manually evaluated, making the process foolproof — after a year. The ED is conducting a separate investigation. The ongoing saga has also revealed the lack of transparency and accountability that dogs the SSC’s recruitment process. Last month, a Calcutta HC bench constituted on the directions of the Supreme Court annulled the appointments.