Kolkata: Contradictory views taken by the Calcutta High Court and West Bengal government with regard to fresh recruitments in the wake of the multi-crore teacher recruitment scam involving the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) has created confusion in the state’s legal and political circles.
The two judges of the Calcutta High Court — Abhijit Gangopadhyay and Biswajit Basu — have made it clear that any fresh recruitment on this count should be made by creating vacancies through termination of service of those recruited illegally and those vacancies should be filled up by the eligible candidates from the waiting list who were deprived.
Both the judges questioned as to how teachers recruited illegally against any consideration can set examples for their students or contribute to social development.
On the contrary, state Education Minister Bratya Basu has said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wants eligible candidates from the waiting list to be recruited, but without disturbing the status of those already recruited and are serving as teachers.
Basu said that since the matter of social prestige is involved with the lives of those already recruited, the Chief Minister does not want to disturb their current status.
According to the leader of opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, Banerjee does not want termination of service of those recruited illegally fearing another round of political backlash.
“Demonstrations by the candidates deprived illegally have already become a major cause of pain for the ruling party. Now if those who were illegally appointed are terminated, they will hound the Trinamool leaders demanding return of the money they paid for getting the job. That is why the Chief Minister is so desperate to protect them,” Adhikari said.
Senior counsel of the Calcutta High Court, Kaushik Gupta, said that retaining those recruited illegally is akin to declaring an unlawful action as legal.
“The state government might do that out of political compulsion, but that will not justify the legal provisions. Secondly, the eligible candidates who will be recruited now from the waiting list will be behind those recruited illegally in terms of service seniority, which will be against the law of justice,” Gupta said.
–IANS
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