KOLKATA: Advocates who fought for candidates victimised by Bengal’s largest recruitment scam have accused the Mamata Banerjee government of flip-flopping on the issue after the Supreme Court upheld the Calcutta High Court judgment, which ordered the sacking of the entire panel of 26,000 teachers and non-teaching staff.
“The Mamata Banerjee government is continuously trying to mislead the people, especially those unfortunate individuals who lost their jobs because of the misdeeds of Trinamool Congress leaders who collected money in exchange for jobs,” said senior advocate and CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, who led the legal fight.
Advocates pointed out that, on one hand, the government has accepted the Supreme Court’s directive to start a fresh recruitment process by publishing a new advertisement on or before May 31, and to complete the entire process by December 31, 2025.
“On the other hand, Mamata Banerjee is misleading the people by publicly stating that the State will file a review petition against the judgment passed by the bench comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar. Mamata is giving false hope to those who lost their jobs,” said advocate Sabyasachi Chatterjee.
“How can you accept a judgment and also file a review against it?” he asked.
In a related order, the Supreme Court, keeping students’ interests in mind, allowed assistant teachers not implicated in wrongdoing to continue teaching Classes 9–12 until the end of the year. However, the court ruled that no non-teaching staff or teachers identified as tainted will be allowed to remain in their posts.
The order came shortly after the Supreme Court upheld the Calcutta High Court’s decision to cancel the 2016 recruitment of more than 25,700 teachers and non-teaching staff for state-run and state-aided schools in West Bengal. The apex court dismissed appeals filed by the State Government, the West Bengal School Service Commission, and 125 of the recruited candidates.
The bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar, observed, “The entire selection process has been vitiated and tainted beyond resolution.”
The court also ruled that tainted candidates—whether appointed as teachers or non-teaching staff—must refund any salaries or payments received, as their appointments were the result of fraud, amounting to cheating. However, those not found guilty of wrongdoing will not be asked to return salaries but will still lose their jobs. The court also clarified that teachers currently allowed to continue would not receive any advantage in the upcoming recruitment examination.
Trinamool Congress sources said the government and its legal advisors were brainstorming possible options. However, senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, while attending a Congress session in Ahmedabad, reportedly said that the chances of a review petition succeeding were “extremely limited.”
TMC sources further indicated that the State Government was considering filing the review petition after Khanna’s retirement on May 12. However, advocates highlighted that such a move is unlikely to succeed, as an appeal must be filed within 30 days of the judgment. Waiting until after May 12 would exceed this deadline.
Meanwhile, “untainted teachers” preparing to return to school on Monday have demanded that the government immediately terminate “tainted” individuals to restore their honour.
The “untainted teachers” insist that their return to school must be “with dignity” — something they feel was taken away by the Supreme Court’s April 3 order.
“We have not only lost our jobs, but also our social prestige,” said Mahboob Mandal.
“If the State Government issues termination letters to the tainted candidates, it will help restore our honour.”
“The apex court has said that deserving teachers should return to school. We urge the State Secondary Education Board to terminate the tainted and undeserving candidates, so that our credibility remains beyond question,” said Samsur Sheikh, one of several protesters staging a dharna in support of their demands.
“We will return to school, but we must continue our fight. This order only provides temporary relief,” said Dhitish Mondal, spokesperson for the Deserving Teachers’ Rights Forum.
“We’re still deciding on the roadmap for further protests.”
One key question looms over the protest site at Esplanade’s Y-Channel after the Supreme Court verdict — What next?
The School Service Commission is now required to complete the fresh recruitment process by December 31, meaning even deserving teachers must sit for the examination again.
“How many times can an individual write the same exam?” asked Smriti Mondal, who previously taught English in a school in Pashchim Bardhaman.
“If the court has called us deserving, why do we need to write the exam again?” asked Sanjay Das, a former Bengali teacher at Babu Dumro High School in Jhargram.
A teacher at the protest site, preparing for the exam, said, “If the court orders the State Government to conduct the exam, it will have to implement it. Then all of us, whether we want to or not, will have to appear for it.”
While there was some relief for teachers, many non-teaching staff felt ignored.
“We have been discriminated against. The court allowed teachers to return, but there’s no relief for us. Some of us are also deserving,” said Bapi Mondal, 48, who worked as a non-teaching staff member at a school in West Midnapore.
“My main job was to ring the bell and open the gate. But due to a shortage of teachers, I would sometimes take physical education or junior-level classes,” he added.
Representatives of the Deserving Teachers’ Rights Forum said their demand for reinstatement remains firm.
“We must be reinstated, we are not backing down,” said Forum spokesperson Brindaban Ghosh.
“The list of deserving and undeserving candidates must be made public, and those not tainted should be certified as such. Their names should be uploaded to the SSC website by April 21.”
Mondal said that the Forum is also preparing to file a review petition in the Supreme Court, appealing for the reinstatement of deserving candidates.