‘Will abide by verdict but can’t accept judgment’: Mamata Banerjee on SC order

KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said her government would abide by the decision of the Supreme Court ruling to set aside over 25,000 appointments to Bengal schools in 2016 but she could not accept the top court’s verdict from a “humanitarian point of view”.

“We have highest regards for the judiciary and we don’t have any inhibition about any judge or court. But as a citizen I have every right to say I cannot accept this judgement. I am expressing my opinion from a humanitarian point of view,” Banerjee told the media at the state secretariat after discussing the verdict with ministers and bureaucrats.

“How can a single person’s crime lead to punishment for all,” Banerjee said.

The chief minister also referred to the alleged discovery of a large sum of cash after a fire broke out at the residence of justice Yashwant Varma last month while he served as a judge in the Delhi high court. “If you recover money from a sitting judge’s home, he is only transferred. Then why were these candidates not transferred?” she said, a reference to Justice Varma, who was moved to his parent high court at Allahabad, and faces an in-house inquiry.

In its verdict, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna said the entire selection process has been vitiated and tainted beyond resolution. “Manipulations and frauds on a large scale, coupled with the attempted cover-up, have dented the selection process beyond repair and partial redemption, the bench said.

As the top court announced the verdict on Thursday, hysteric reactions were witnessed in hundreds of schools across Bengal. Some institutions ended up having no teacher in some of the departments. Many teachers who lost their job questioned the verdict when the Central Bureau of Investigation never named them as scam tainted appointees.

Banerjee said her government will ask the state’s School Service Commission (SSC) to complete the appointment process in three months for these people but wondered why such drastic action was not taken elsewhere.

“How many times will Bengal be targeted? What happened in the Vyapam scam (in Madhya Pradesh)? What punishment was given to the culprits? Our former education minister (Partha Chatterjee) is still in jail. How many people can you punish for the wrongdoing of one or a few people?” said the chief minister.

The CBI investigation into the irregularities in the recruitment started in May 2022 when the then Calcutta high court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay ordered the federal agency to probe the appointment of non-teaching staff (Group C and D) and teaching staff by the SSC and West Bengal Board of Secondary Education between 2014 and 2021 when Chatterjee was education minister. It was alleged that the appointees paid bribes in the range of ₹5-15 lakh to get jobs after failing the selection tests.

The Enforcement Directorate, which started a parallel probe and arrested Chatterjee in July 2022, framed charges against him, ex-primary education board president and legislator Manik Bhattacharya and 52 others in January this year.

Justice Gangopadhyay resigned from service in March 2024, five months before retirement, and joined BJP. He was fielded from the Tamluk Lok Sabha seat, which was earlier held by Dibyendu Adhikari, brother of BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, and won the election/.

“That verdict was passed by a former judge who is now a BJP MP. Was he not accountable to his post? I firmly believe that this was done by CPI(M) and BJP. It will be proven in the future. Let this be a warning bell for CPI(M) and BJP,” she said, accusing the two rival parties of colluding against her.

“Among those who lost jobs, 11,610 are teachers for Class 9 and 10. Another 510 teach in Class 11 and 12. Many of them are checking board exam answer scripts. Who will take their place? Are BJP and CPI(M) trying to crush the education system? During the Left Front era, the wives of employees of the CPI(M) mouthpiece were appointed in schools. Did we ever ask a question?” said Banerjee.

The case in the Calcutta high court was filed by CPI (M) Rajya Sabha member Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, a senior lawyer, who appeared for candidates who did not get the jobs.

Banerjee also took a swipe at Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, the senior lawyer and CPI (M) Rajya Sabha member who appeared for some candidates who alleged irregularities. “The case was filed by Bikash Babu. He is the world’s biggest lawyer. He should get a Nobel prize. I will send my recommendation,” she said.

Bikash Bhattacharya responded: “I carried out my responsibility as a lawyer. It is my job to uphold the Constitution. TMC takes my name whenever it is in trouble.”

Sukanta Majumdar, the state BJP president, who was a science teacher in a north Bengal college, said: “The eligible candidates are jobless today because the state government repeatedly failed to tell the court who were eligible and who were not.”

Most of the affected teachers said they became victims for no fault of theirs.

“Someone should tell me what was my fault. We all went through a process and got appointment on the basis of merit,” said Pratima Giri, a teacher at Durgapur town’s Nepalipara Hindi High School which lost eight of its 33 teachers.

In South 24 Parganas district’s remote Kultali area, the Jamtala Bhagabanchandra High School introduced science stream in class 11 and 12 only three years ago. Shankar Ghosal, the school’s head master, said : “We have lost 11 out of 56 teachers and all were from the science faculty. All 11 were meritorious.”