SC Calls Bengal School Jobs Scam 'Systemic Fraud', Stays Calcutta HC Order Of Cancelling Hirings, Clears CBI Probe

The Supreme Court on April 29 stayed Calcutta High Court order directing CBI to probe West Bengal government officials' role in teacher recruitment scam.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday called the alleged recruitment scam in West Bengal a "systemic fraud" and added that authorities were duty bound to preserve digital records related to the hiring of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching personnel.

Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, along with Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, listened to several pleas questioning the ruling made by the Calcutta High Court on April 22 that cancelled the hiring of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching employees in government and government-funded schools in West Bengal.

What Did Supreme Court Say?

The CJI told the lawyers representing the Bengal government, "The public job is so scarce.... Nothing remains if the faith of the public goes. This is systemic fraud."

He further questioned, "Public jobs are extremely scarce today and are looked at for social mobility. What remains in the system if their appointments are also maligned? People will lose faith, how do you countenance this?"

The bench said the state government has nothing to show that the data was maintained by its authorities and asked about its availability.

"Either you have the data or you do not have it.... You were duty-bound to maintain the documents in digitised form. Now, it is obvious that there is no data. You are unaware of the fact that your service provider has engaged another agency. You had to maintain supervisory control," the bench told the state government's lawyers.

Earlier, the state government had challenged the Calcutta High Court order, saying it cancelled the appointments "arbitrarily".