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Mainstream, VOL 62 No 20, May 18, 2024

Social Unrest and Political Fallouts in West Bengal : After the Court Verdict on the Teacher Recruitment Scam | Sujit Kumar Paul, K. Gireesan

Friday 17 May 2024

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Origin

A notification for recruitment of teachers through a state-level selection test was issued in 2014 and its further process started after two years in 2016. After the declaration of results for the recruitment of school teachers and also for the recruitment of Group C and Group D for government-run and aided schools by School Service Commission (SSC), petitions flooded the Calcutta High Court claiming that there were irregularities in the process of recruitment. It was claimed by the petitioners that many candidates with lower numbers were ranked higher in the merit list and vice versa. It was also known that many candidates whose names were not on the merit list received appointment letters. In addition, the petitioners claimed that the selection process was carried out by the selection panel of the commission in 2019, which was beyond its tenure.

Indian Express Daily reported that the first petition challenging 25 illegal appointments was made in the court but the number further increased to 500 (Bisht, 2024). A Committee to investigate the case was formed by the High Court, headed by retired Justice Ranjit Bag. By the order of the High Court, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement (ED) carried out the investigation. On 23rd July 2022, the education minister was arrested by the ED. Subsequently, many other officials who were on the recruitment board like, the former Advisor of the West Bengal Central School Service Commission (WBCSSC), the former chairman of the West Bengal Central School Service Commission (WBCSSC) and the former president of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) etc. were arrested. Significantly, former Justice, Abhijit Ganguly, who was a judge in the high court, ordered the dismissal of the full panel. Further, the case went to the Supreme Court and the apex court gave a stay over the previous verdict for 6 months. Further, the Supreme Court instructed the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court to constitute a division bench to hear all the petitions of this case together. Accordingly, the division bench of Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Md. Shabbar Rashidi was constituted. This division bench ordered the investigation agencies to investigate and submit the report. After going through the report submitted by the investigation agencies, the division bench gave its final verdict on 22nd April 2024 which resulted in the cancellation of the appointment of 25753 teachers.

The Verdict

The High Court in its verdict cited the following illegalities in the selection process.

  • The School Service Commission (SSC) appointed an agency M/s. NYSA to evaluate the OMR sheets in closed-door without following any tender process. This was a clear violation of articles 14 and 16 of the Indian Constitution.
  • M/s. NYSA appointed another agency, Data Scantech, to scan the OMR sheets.
  • Scanning was done in the SSC premises itself. However, the SSC claimed that it has neither engaged Data Scantech to scan the OMR sheets nor ordered M/s NYASA to engage Data Scantech or any other agency.
  • The SSC destroyed all the OMR sheets with the claim of preserving scanned mirror images in the SSC server. However, no scanned mirror image was found by the CBI on the SSC website.
  • The OMR sheets were destroyed without preserving them on the website.
  • Though the CBI could not find any OMR sheet, the SSC has been responding to the RTI applicants during the period 2018 - 2023.
  • The number of appointments made(25753) is more than the total number of vacant seats (24640) in all categories.
  • Persons who were not on the merit list were given appointments.
  • Persons who have submitted blank OMR sheets in the examination also have been appointed.
  • The process of selection was made by the Selection Panel after the expiry of its tenure.
  • Persons with lower numbers were ranked higher in the merit list which was published.
  • Counselling sessions were held after the expiry of the tenure of the selection panel.
  • The total number of beneficiaries from the illegalities are yet to be identified by the SSC, Board, and State.
  • Permission to create supernumerary posts to accommodate the illegal appointees was made by the SSC.
  • Recruitment rules governing the recruitment of the posts of the four categories had deviated in all possible ways.
    Given the irregularities cited above, the division bench of the high court gave its verdict on 22nd April 2024. The main points of the verdict are that the whole recruitment process was cancelled and, fresh recruitment has to be done. The verdict also indicated that those persons who were recruited after the expiry of the panel, and those who have submitted blank OMR sheets and were appointed, must return all the remuneration they have received for the job with 12% interest within 4 weeks of the date of the judgement.

Impact of the Verdict

This verdict has the potential to have multiple impacts on society. It can lead to social unrest and turmoil in the State of West Bengal and can be viewed from two perspectives – From the point of view of the teachers who lost their jobs and from the point of view of the students who lost their teachers.
From the teachers’ point of view, the major impacts are:

Financial Crisis: Most of the persons, whose jobs have been cancelled by the verdict of the High Court, come from middle-class families and will face severefinancial crises in this scenario. There are many layers to such issues when such a person is the only earning member of the family. These‘ex-teachers’will have old parents, spouses, and children, who are fully dependent on them. There are certain cases where they have taken a bank loan with certain plans. With the sudden financial crisis, their life and living standards will be affected very badly.

Social Status: In West Bengal, the job of a teacher carries a lot of respect by society. When a person becomes a teacher, his/her social status gets uplifted. This received a dent in the present scenario. In the post-scam scenario, every teacher appointment may be seen with doubt, apprehending the chances for a non-genuine appointment. This can cause mental health problems to the teaching community.

Marital and Family Problems: As the recruitment process happened in 2016, we can assume that most of the ‘ex-teachers’ are married and have children also. Owing to the sudden loss of job, especially in a middle-income family with the sole wage earner, there can be family problems, which can also lead to domestic violence. The trend of giving preference to boys with government jobs, especially as teachers, may undergo change after this court verdict.

From the point of view of the students, the major impacts are:

Inadequate education: There have been reports that many of the ‘ex-teachers’ were unworthy and were not able to teach the students properly. There were reports that these ‘ex-teachers were unable to clear the doubts of the students and also, they used to beat them when they raised questions. This mass cancellation of appointment of teachers will lead to a sudden shortage of teachers that will have several far-reaching implications.

Student-Teacher relationship: The perception of students regarding the teachers may undergo drastic changes in the post-scam scenario. Many students may think that several teachers are unworthy of teaching them, as a fallout of the court verdict. Hence, this verdict could create a gap in the student-teacher relationship in the days ahead.

Degradation of Moral Values: After parents, teachers are viewed by the students as their idols. When the students see that their idols have got their appointment through illegal means, there will be a dent in their perception towards them. Any degeneration in this ‘profession’ could create long-term impact on the society, unlike many other professions.

Political Fallouts

The people of West Bengal used to always take much pride in their culture of knowledge, but this scam has created a serious dent in their pride. One could see that several political players are directly linked to the issue. The verdict regarding the scam indicates the involvement of Trinamool Congress (TMC) which is running the ruling dispensation in the state. When the petitioners went to the court citing various illegalities, many prominent politicians of the opposition political parties supported their claim. At that time, office bearers of the ruling party as the key persons of the State Government claimed that these were false claims. They even went to the extent of saying that the petitioners were instigated by the opposition parties. It was viewed as part of a larger conspiracy by the opposition parties to defame the Government. One could see that the lawyers who were senior leaders of opposition parties fought for the petitioners and lawyers who were leaders of the ruling party fought for the Government in the court.

During the process, the Court directed the Government and the SSC to produce ‘clear data’ about the genuine candidates. On many occasions, it was reported that the State Government was not cooperating with the investigating agencies, which was constantly monitored by the court. According to the Court, instead of bringing out the list of faulty appointments, the State Government tried to protect the ‘unworthy appointees’ by creating supernumerary posts to accommodate the ‘worthy petitioners’. One could see that the State Government tried to negotiate with the petitioners who had been protesting over 1000 days by promising them to accommodate them through supernumerary posts. This became evident as the State Government made efforts to accommodate 25,753 persons against the vacant positions of 24,640 by creating supernumerary posts. After the court verdict, the former spokesperson of the ruling party and a few ministers went on record that some of the appointments were faulty. However, they never brought up this matter to the court till the verdict was issued. The leaders of the opposition parties have been pointing their guns at the ruling party as they squarely held them responsible for this scam. The Chairperson of SSC, in the form of an affidavit, submitted to the court that about 5000 illegal appointments were made. It is known that the data submitted by the SSC in the court has been given to it by the CBI. It is significant to note that while submitting the data about illegal appointments, SSC has reduced the number. Owing to all these, the credibility of the SSC itself is being questioned. Given the above, the statements of the SSC, the State Government and the spokespersons of the ruling party do not seem to be credible and trustworthy.

Lok Sabha Elections have been going on since April 19 and in the State of West Bengal, the elections are being scheduled in seven phases. In the political ecosystem of the state, this teacher recruitment scam has become one of the most discussed issues after the verdict of the court. This verdict has shaken the whole society in West Bengal and may influence the decision of the voters when they participate in the election process. The opposition parties like Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India(Marxist), and Indian National Congress have not left any chance to highlight this issue against the ruling party in their election campaigns. Going back in the line of the history of elections in the state, one could see that during the Lok Sabha elections in 2009, there were several serious allegations against the left regime and the opposition parties got more seats than the ruling dispensation. Subsequently, in the Legislative Assembly elections in 2011, the Left Front Government was removed from power ending in long years of rule in the state. The court verdict in the teacher recruitment scam has the potential to make a significant impact in the ongoing elections, as polling is left to be held in many seats in the state through the remaining phases. The verdict of the division bench of the Calcutta High Court has the potential to create serious social unrest in West Bengal, especially when the state is in the middle of General Elections. In addition, the political fallouts of the verdict may result in unpredictable results that may be unfavourable to the ruling dispensation in the state.

(Authors: Dr. Sujit Kumar Paul, Professor of Rural Development and Management, Dept. of Lifelong Learning and Extension, Institute of Rural Reconstruction, Visva-Bharati, Sriniketan, Birbhum, West Bengal – 731236. E-mail ID: skpaulrd[at]gmail.com; sujitkumar.paul[at]visva-bharati.ac.in; Dr. K Gireesan, Professor and Director, MIT School of Government, MIT World Peace University, Kothrud, Pune – 411 038.E-mail ID: gireesan.decentralisation[at]gmail.com)

References

  • Basak, D and Rashidi, Md. S. (2024). Relevant findings and conclusion in Education Scam Judgement, Kolkata: Calcutta High Court.

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