Candidates stage stir after HC cancels jobs of over 25K teaching, non-teaching staff

Kolkata: Hundreds of candidates from the 2016 recruitment process for both teaching and non-teaching staff whose selection has been cancelled by the Calcutta High Court gathered at Dharmatala on Tuesday to protest against the Court’s decision to cancel the appointment of 25,753 candidates.

A teacher from Hooghly claimed to have all the papers to prove his eligibility, said: “For about 5,000 illegal appointments, why are 19,000 others who have their papers in place have to suffer?” The special bench of Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Md. Shabbar Rashidi had declared the panel “null and void and cancelled” while also directing candidates who had gotten jobs through irregularities to return their salaries along with an interest.

The 282-page long judgement has resulted in another movement at Dharmatala. This time it’s the teaching and non-teaching candidates who lost their jobs due to the Court’s judgement in appointments made in Group C and Group D as well as assistant teachers in classes IX-X and XI-XII in the year 2016. According to the data recorded in the judgement appointments were given to 25,753 candidates in these four groups. The Bench held that the entire selection process is shrouded in mystery that it is difficult to fathom the quantum of illegalities performed.

“What has been produced by the selection process is not a cereal consisting of grains and chaff capable of segregation but a product unfit for human consumption. Fraud perpetrated and perpetuated is deep and pervasive. Any attempt to shift the proverbial grain from the chaff would be an unprofitable exercise, prolonging the agony and would put premium on dishonesty,” the Bench observed.

The statistical report submitted by SSC in terms of the four selection processes stated that out of 11,610 recommendations for IX-X level, OMR issue was found in 808, rank jumping in 185 and alleged irregularities in 993 which makes the percentage of alleged irregularities 8.50 per cent. For the XI-XII level, total recommendation was 5596, out of which 771 OMR issues, 39 rank jumping and 810 alleged irregularities were detected making it 14.47 per cent alleged irregularities against the total. Similarly, for Group C, the total recommendation was 2037, out of which 783 were OMR issues and 783 alleged irregularities, bringing the percentage to 38.43 per cent. For Group D, the total recommendation was 3880, OMR issue was four 1741 bringing the alleged irregularity percentage to 44.87 per cent.

In the judgement, it was mentioned that during the hearing the SSC did not discount the fact that possibilities of further illegalities exist. The West Bengal Central School Service Commission (WBCSSC) chairman Siddharth Majumder said: “Irregularities were detected for 5,000 candidates. For that, the rest 19,000 to 20,000 candidates should not suffer.”