The West Bengal government has filed a plea challenging Calcutta’s high court order on canceling 25,753 teaching and non-teaching appointments made by WBSSC in 2016. The Supreme Court will hear the plea on Monday.
According to the details provided by the top court, the bench headed by CJI DY Chandrachud, Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra will hear the plea on March 29.
Why did the West Bengal Government file the plea?
According to the order passed last week, the high court of Calcutta had canceled the appointments of all 25,753 individuals who were selected for various categories of jobs in secondary and higher secondary schools across the state.
As per the division bench of justices Debangsu Basak and Shabbar Rashidi, the high court had directed, that those candidates selected from the expired panels, will have to give back their entire salary drawn by them. Along with an annualized 12 percent interest within the next 4 weeks.
The court further directed the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC), to begin the recruitment from scratch. And also directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to continue its investigation into the matter.
Creation Of Super-Numeric posts
Upon further examination into the state cabinet’s decision to create super-numeric posts, the Calcutta High Court had also ordered the CBI to question the masterminds behind the creation of positions that are reportedly exceeding the available vacancies.
These super numeric posts allegedly provide backdoor entry for incompetent candidates who are recruited illegally.
Violative of Articles 14 & 16 of the constitution
The Calcutta HC also emphasized, that all of these appointments are violative of Article 14 (equality before the law) and Article 16 (prohibiting discrimination in employment in any government office) of the constitution.
What did the Supreme Court say?
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court while admitting the plea, had emphasized that all sides of the party need to be heard.