West Bengal SSC recruitment scam: SC pauses Calcutta High Court order cancelling 24,000 jobs, allows CBI to continue its investigation

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered interim stay on Calcutta High Court's decision which declared the entire panel of 2016 SSC teachers' recruitment null and void cancelling appointments of 24,000 teachers and non-teaching staff. The court has asked CBI to continue its investigation.

"CBI to continue its investigation into the West Bengal teacher recruitment scam case. However, it will not take any coercive steps against any official or candidate," said the court in its order.

Terming the alleged recruitment scam in West Bengal "systemic fraud", the Supreme Court said authorities were duty-bound to maintain the digitised records pertaining to the appointment of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff.


A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the Calcutta HC's order.

"The public job is so scarce.... Nothing remains if the faith of the public goes. This is systemic fraud. Public jobs are extremely scarce today and are looked at for social mobility. What remains in the system if their appointments are also maligned? People will lose faith, how do you countenance this?" the CJI asked the lawyers representing the state government.

The bench said the state government has nothing to show that the data was maintained by its authorities and asked about its availability.

"Either you have the data or you do not have it.... You were duty-bound to maintain the documents in digitised form. Now, it is obvious that there is no data. You are unaware of the fact that your service provider has engaged another agency. You had to maintain supervisory control," the bench told the state government's lawyers.

Earlier, the state government had challenged the Calcutta High Court order, saying it cancelled the appointments "arbitrarily".


What is West Bengal SSC recruitment scam?
In 2014, the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) announced that the State Level Selection Test SLST would be used to recruit teachers for West Bengal's state-run schools.

The actual recruitment process began in 2016. However, this process was met with numerous challenges, including several petitions filed in the Calcutta High Court alleging irregularities in the recruitment process.

The petitioners claimed that many candidates who received lower grades were placed higher on the merit list, raising concerns about the fairness of the selection process. Furthermore, there were allegations that individuals who did not even make the merit list received appointment letters.