Calcutta High Court Asks WB Education Board To Consider Granting Opportunity To Candidates “Cheated” In Teachers Recruitment Scam

The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed the West Bengal Board of Primary Education to consider the case of those candidates who were ‘wronged’ due to the large-scale recruitment scam in hiring of primary school teachers, which is being currently investigated by the CBI and ED.

Court observed that the petitioners as well as candidates who were similarly placed to them and had missed out on jobs due to the recruitment scam, which led to the selection of ineligible candidates, deserved a second chance in future recruitments.

In directing for some candidates who were “wronged” to be added as parties to the writ petition, the Court further instructed the various Primary education councils to cancel the recommendation of appointment of around 94 candidates who were found by the Board to be ineligible for the posts to which they were appointed.

A single-bench of Justice Amrita Sinha held:

The Board is directed to recommend names of candidates as appearing in the merit list published by the board in accordance with the merit position. The board is also directed to publish the panel [for 2016 and 2020] in accordance with Rule 8 of the WB Primary School Teacher Recruitment Rules 2016. According to these rules, the committee is supposed to prepare council-wise panels. All panels in accordance with these rules shall be published by [3^rd November 2023.]”

The Bench’s suggestion for providing the ‘wronged candidates’ a second chance, was vehemently opposed by counsel for the Board, while the State Counsel submitted that he had no instructions pertaining to the same.

Court observed that the Board ought to take a “sympathetic view” in respect of those candidates who were eligible for jobs, but were “cheated” due to the recruitment scam.

“Learned advocate representing the Board is directed to take instructions on the available vacancies, the Board is directed to explore the possibility of granting one opportunity to the unsuccessful candidates to appear in the recruitment exam that may be conducted for filing up the vacancies in future recruitment process according to the 2016 rules. The same is directed to be looked into by the board to put an end to the suffering of the candidates who feel cheated for not being provided with appointment despite possessing the eligibility criteria. The Board may discuss the matter with the State government.”

These observations came in the matters concerning the multi-tier recruitment scam in West Bengal which is being investigated by the CBI and ED under the Court’s supervision.

DSG Billwadal Bhattacharya and DSG Dhiraj Trivedi submitted further reports on the progress of the investigation into the various recruitment scams, which were recorded by the Court.

Case: Soumen Nandy v State of WB & Ors

Case No: WPA 9979/2022