The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred hearing on key cases related to West Bengal, including on the petition challenging Calcutta High Court’s order cancelling recruitment of over 23,000 teaching and non-teaching staff related to the West Bengal School Service Commission recruitment scam.
The apex court rescheduled the hearing concerning the Calcutta High Court's decision to cancel the appointments of over 23,000 teaching and non-teaching staff implicated in the alleged West SSC recruitment scam.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and comprising Justices Sanjay Kumar and K.V. Viswanathan listed the case for hearing at 2pm on January 15. The bench directed all parties in the case to submit affidavits by that day. Meanwhile, the Court also asked the CBI to submit its report by the day.
The Calcutta High Court in April last year decided to cancel the entire recruitment panel formed through the 2016 State Level Selection Test (SLST) for the state government-sponsored and aided schools in West Bengal, leading to multiple challenges at the Supreme Court. A division bench of Justices Debangsu Basak and Shabbar Rashidi at the High Court found that the state government failed to distinguish between legitimate appointees and individuals who obtained jobs through unlawful means.
The apex court also deferred the hearing on the West Bengal government’s plea challenging the Calcutta High Court’s ruling which revoked the Other Backward Class (OBC) status of 77 communities last year. The division bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and Augustine George Masih scheduled the case for a final hearing on January 28 and 29. In May last year, a division bench of Calcutta High Court observed that the West Bengal government had “acted in undue haste” and “no proper enquiry was conducted” while classifying 77 classes as OBCs.
While hearing a plea challenging certain provisions of the West Bengal Backward Classes (Other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) (Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts) Act, 2012, the High Court said that the state “had practised protective discrimination in deviation to the constitutional norms”.
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The high court noted that the state provided no data to demonstrate inadequate representation of the concerned communities in the West Bengal government. Consequently, there was no opportunity for objections to be raised against such data.
In August last year, a division bench headed by former CJI D.Y. Chandrachud declined to stay the High Court’s order and instructed the West Bengal government to clarify whether it had consulted the State Backward Commission and conducted a survey to assess the social and educational backwardness of the 77 communities in question.
