After widespread outrage and appeals from the teaching fraternity as well as the State government, the Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the untainted teachers of Classes 9-12 in West Bengal government and aided schools, whose appointments were cancelled in connection with the 2016 ‘school jobs-for-cash scam’, to continue working until fresh appointments are made to the posts.
The top court granted this relief in light of the students’ interest, however, it did not grant relief to the sacked employees of Group C and D, as the number of “tainted” candidates in the said classes was substantially high. This order is however subject to the condition that the State government and the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) complete the fresh recruitment process for the posts of Assistant Teachers of classes 9-12 by December 31, 2025 and file an affidavit before May 31, 2025, producing the advertisement. Those allowed to continue their services now will not get any benefit in the fresh examination, the Court ordered.
“This is not a relief for us as we refuse to reappear for the fresh exam. We had cleared the previous exam by merit and we have been wrongly terminated due to a scam perpetrated by the West Bengal education department. We will continue to protest against the unfair cancellation of our jobs. The State government has still not produced a list discriminating between the tainted and untainted teachers, they had a year’s time to do it since the Calcutta High Court order, we are utterly disappointed with the government,” expressed Mehbub Mandal, one of the sacked teachers from North 24 Parganas. “Our lives are at stake, we have bills and EMIs to pay, most of us are well beyond our 30s with families to support. The [Supreme Court] decision has threatened the livelihood of 19,000 teachers and placed at stake the future of the students as so many schools will lack subject teachers across the State,” he added.
On April 3, 2025, a division bench comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar upheld a 2024 Calcutta High Court order cancelling en bloc the 2016 WBSSC recruitment process of teachers for classes 9, 10, 11 and 12, and Group C and D staffers made through the State Level Selection Test (SLST), leading to the termination of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff in all State-run and aided schools.
The Court opined that the entire selection process has been “irrevocably vitiated and tainted beyond resolution” owing to large-scale manipulation and fraud, along with subsequent attempts to cover-up the irregularities. It declared the jobs of those “tainted” as “null and void due to egregious violations and illegalities which violate Article 14 (right to equality) and Article 16 (right to equal opportunity in public employment) of the Constitution” and ordered them to return the salaries accumulated since their appointments. The untainted staff were not required to return their salaries but would inevitably lose their posts, which some have served in for over 9 years.
Following the court’s order, the WBSSC contested that all the appointments were cancelled despite it having stated before the High Court that there were around 5,300 “suspect appointees” while the remaining 19,000 were “likely to be eligible” on the basis of merit. Claiming that the blanket sacking of over 25,000 candidates would be detrimental for the State education department as the teachers’ strength in government schools is already strained, the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) on April 7 appealed to the top court to allow untainted teachers to continue their services until the end of the academic year or until fresh appointments are made.
Long-drawn fraud
The 2016 ‘school jobs-for-cash scam’ or ‘teachers recruitment scam’ stands as one of the most high profile cases of corruption in the State, leading to a 9-year-long legal battle. WBSSC held recruitment exams for 24,640 posts in State-run and aided schools, for which around 23 lakh appeared. In an act of large-scale manipulation, a total of 25,753 appointment letters were issued by the government, well beyond the officially sanctioned number of posts. The investigation later revealed that many non-qualifying teachers had bribed officials to secure posts.
Among the total 54 accused, several WBSSC officials and top TMC leaders including former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and MLAs Manik Bhattacharya and Jiban Krishna Saha were arrested and investigations by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) have led to the attachment and seizure of assets worth over ₹365 crore in connection with the scam.
In its recent order, the apex court noted that WBSSC had admitted to several irregularities: (i) rank jumping, where candidates with lower ranks were preferred over those with higher ranks (ii) out-of-panel appointments, where candidates not on the shortlist were recommended and appointed (iii) appointments of candidates who were not recommended by WBSSC but were appointed by the Board (iv) manipulation of the OMR scores.
Teachers’ plight
At the heels of the explosive R.G. rape and murder case, this incident has once again brought the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government under fire, which has been struggling to evade this controversy since 2016. The sacking of around 19,000 innocent teachers, as per the State government’s own admission, raises doubts as to why the government could not produce and submit before the High Court a segregated list of “suspected” and “eligible” candidates in the 9 years since the irregularities were unearthed.
It also brings under scrutiny the Chief Minister’s role, who alleged that this is a “mental attack” on the State administration and a conspiracy of the Opposition, but acknowledged the irregularities in the recruitment process. While the Opposition BJP alleged that TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee (Mamata’s nephew) took a bribe of ₹700 crore and was the main beneficiary of the scam, Mamata said that she is ready to even “go to jail” to protect the innocent teachers.
Bearing the brunt of a corruption scandal, the teachers facing uncertainty over their careers and livelihood, squarely blame the State government for “orchestrating the scam” and hold the Chief Minister accountable for 9-year-delay in rectifying the malpractices of the recruitment process.
Amit Ranjan Bhuyan (39), a Physical Science teacher at Keorakhali Nakul Sahadeb High School in Medinipur district, says that he secured his post in 2019 after clearing the 2016 exams. “I have passed the age to apply for a new job, I have a 9-year-old daughter and a whole family to support being the sole breadwinner. It takes years of effort and determination to land a government job, which is meant to ensure lifelong security. It is unbelievable that a scam engineered by certain corrupt leaders has snatched the jobs of thousands of hard working teachers. How could the scam have happened without the State government’s knowledge? The State government must ensure that our posts are reinstated,” he says.
Police crackdown
The teachers have been taking to the streets in Kolkata and other districts in protest against the SC order as well as the State government’s inaction. On April 9, a group of sacked teachers attempted to organise a protest at the office of the district inspector (DI) of schools in Kasba. Their attempt was thwarted by State police who began wielding batons and were also seen kicking and tackling protesters with force. While the police claimed that they were attacked by the protesters first and used “mild force” to deter them, the protesting teachers have condemned the police action.
Subsequently, the agitating teachers launched a sit-in protest in front of the WBSSC office building in Salt Lake on April 9 against the cancellation of their jobs and “police atrocities” against their colleagues. On April 10, they began a relay hunger strike at the same site, demanding that the cases lodged against protesting teachers who were allegedly attacked by the cops be withdrawn.
Dhitesh Mandal, one of the teachers who claimed to have been beaten up by the cops, said: “We informed the administration that we will lock the offices of the DIs till 4pm and then leave. The police launched an unprecedented attack on us. We went to the DI’s office to peacefully put forth our demands to protect our jobs instead we were attacked in a brutal and unimaginable way. Not only did we lose our jobs to greed and corruption, now we are being kicked by the police for pressing our demands?”
“We do not wish to harm the students in any way but our demands have not yet been met, we can only teach until new appointments are made and then what? What about our future? How can they ask untainted teachers to sit for another exam after 9 years? The government is the main culprit behind our fate, they have not differentiated between the tainted and untainted staff because they want to safeguard the tainted candidates who they have taken bribes from,” says Bhuyan, asserting that the untainted teachers will continue protesting. The teachers intend to hold a sit-in protest in front of the SSC office on April 21 and take out a march on April 22 from Sealdah to Raj Bhavan to meet the Governor and highlight their demands, which they want to be relayed to the President of India.
“We are happy with the Supreme Court. There is a sense of relief. I would request teachers not worry. We will resolve the issues. I would request the teachers not to worry, the issue will be resolved,” said Mamata on Thursday. Earlier, holding a meeting with some of the sacked teachers, she had rebuked the verdict, urging them to continue their service “voluntarily”.
Despite the Supreme Court’s relief, the future remains precarious for the 19,000 sacked teachers who have no clarity as to whether their jobs will be permanently restored. As the list of untainted candidates remains to be furnished by the State government, the teachers are apprehensive of returning to their classrooms as their sense of security and dignity has been jeopardised.
