The Supreme Court has decided that there will be no CBI investigation into the West Bengal government’s decision to create extra teaching and non-teaching posts. These posts were made to accommodate around 25,000 people who were recently removed after the court cancelled their appointments due to problems in the selection process by the School Service Commission (SSC).
A bench led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna said that courts cannot question cabinet decisions, and therefore, the Calcutta High Court’s earlier order asking for a CBI probe was wrong. The state government, led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, had challenged that High Court order.
Just last week, the Supreme Court said that the SSC recruitment process was full of cheating and manipulation, which completely damaged its fairness. The court said the system was so deeply flawed that it could not be fixed, and the appointments were not trustworthy.
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The Bengal government had requested the Supreme Court to separate the honest (‘untainted’) candidates from the dishonest (‘tainted’) ones, but the court said that would be very difficult because of how widespread the fraud was. The court ruled that the entire process was intentionally corrupted.
After the court’s decision, Mamata Banerjee strongly reacted. She promised to support the deserving teachers and said similar recruitment scams have also happened in other states, like Madhya Pradesh’s Vyapam scam and the NEET exam paper leak. She accused the BJP and CPI(M) of trying to ruin the education system in Bengal.
What is the Bengal Teachers Recruitment Scam?
This controversy started when the Bengal government created extra posts (called supernumerary posts) to give jobs to more people than the number of vacancies available. In 2016, over 23 lakh candidates gave the SSC exam. There were only 24,640 vacancies, but 25,753 appointment letters were given out. This raised suspicions of illegal hiring.
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As a result, the Trinamool government faced major criticism, and some leaders, including former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, were even arrested.
After the Supreme Court’s recent judgment, BJP leader Amit Malviya called it a big loss for Mamata Banerjee and demanded she also be held responsible. He said the scam had destroyed the future of many young people.
Despite the criticism, Mamata Banerjee said she would not take the verdict personally. She promised that her government would improve the recruitment process and conduct it again in a fair manner.
