'Entire Selection Process Tainted' : Supreme Court Upholds Quashing Of 25K Staff Appointments By West Bengal SSC In 2016

The bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar was considering the batch of petitions challenging the Calcutta High Court's order setting aside the appointments in government schools.

The Court held that candidates found to be tainted must refund the salaries received by them. However, the candidates not found to be tainted need return the payments.

Court's conclusions

Pronouncing the verdict, CJI Khanna said : "In our opinion, this is the case where the entire selection process is vitiated and tainted beyond resolution. Manipulation and fraud on a large scale, coupled with the intention to cover up have tainted the selection process beyond repair. The legitimacy and credibility of the selection process are denuded. 

We find no reason to interfere with the direction of the High Court that the services of the tainted candidates, where appointed, must be terminated and they will be required to refund any salaries and payment they received. Since the appointments are the result of fraud and cheating, we see no justification to alter this direction.

For candidates not specifically found to be tainted, their entire selection process has been rightly declared null and void due to egregious violations and illegalities which violate Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. As such, the appointments of these candidates are cancelled. However, candidates who are already employed need not be asked to refund or restitute any payments made to them. However, their services will be terminated. Furthermore, no candidate can be appointed once the entire examination process and results have been declared void."

Limited relief for untainted candidates

As regards those candidates who do not fall in the tainted category and who have previously worked in departments of the State or autonomous bodies, the Court said that they must be allowed to apply to their previous positions in various governmental departments/ autonomous bodies. Such applications will be processed by the Government departments/autonomous bodies within 3 months and the candidates will be allowed to resume their position. It was clarified that the period between the termination of the previous appointment and rejoining will not be considered as a break in service. Their seniority and other entitlements will be preserved, and they will be eligible for increments. However, for the period they were employed under the disputed appointment, no wages will be paid by the State Government or autonomous bodies. Further, if required and necessary, supernumerary posts may be created for persons appointed in the interregnum.

On Disabled Candidates 

The Court did not interfere with the High Court's direction allowing one disabled appointee to continue on humanitarian grounds. However, the Court clarified that other disabled candidates will not be entitled to the same benefit.

The Court added that the disabled candidates will continue to receive wages until the fresh selection process is carried out.  These disabled candidates will be allowed to participate in the selection process, if required, with age relaxations and other concessions. 

Similarly, other candidates not tainted will be allowed to participate in the fresh process with appropriate age relaxation.

The bench held that the present observations and findings will not influence the criminal proceedings. 

The Court will also hear separately the Special Leave Petition filed by the State of West Bengal against the High Court's direction for CBI investigation on April 4.

There are 5 main categories of stakeholders which the Court identified : (1) West Bengal Government; (2) WBSSC; (3)Original Petitioners - who were not selected (representing classes 9-10, 11-12, groups C and D); (4) persons whose appointments are cancelled by the High Court ; (5) Central Bureau of Investigation.

The core issue for the Court to examine was how credible would be the scanned data of the original copies of the OMR sheets since there is no concrete proof that the original OMR sheets, after being collected from the candidates, were not tampered with before scanning.

Notably, the SSC admitted to have destroyed the original OMR sheets after 1 year of the exam in terms of the exam rules.

How Was The Scanning Of OMR Sheets Conducted & CBI Findings

Notably, the SSC had tasked a private company called NYSA Communications for the scanning and evaluations of the OMR sheets, which was done at the office of the SSC. However, NYSA had sub-delegated the task of scanning to an entity by the name of DATA Scantech Solutions, NOIDA which was present at the premises of SSC to complete the scanning work.

Previously, the CBI informed the bench led by then CJI DY Chandrachud that the images of the OMR were handed over by DATA Scantech Solutions to NYSA Communications Private Limited in digital form leaving the original hard copies of the OMR sheets in the office of the SSC. According to the CBI report, the SSC handed over the answer keys for all subjects to NYSA Communications Private Limited for evaluating the OMR responses. CBI seized the server database of the SSC during the course of the investigation.

Subsequently, in September 2022, 3 hard disks were recovered from the former NYSA employee Pankaj Bansal containing data of the scanned OMR sheets. A certificate was also taken by Bansal in terms of S. 65B of Evidence Act.

The CBI in its report to the Court disclosed that there were mismatches of results found when the Commission's server was tallied with the server from Bansal.

"The written marks awarded to candidates as available on the server of the commission had been increased to qualify underserving candidates. This mismatch establishes that manipulation in marks of written examination in the case of many candidates was resorted to and such candidates were identified." the CBI report stated.

It may be noted that the Top Court had earlier passed an interim order protecting the appointments made in pursuance of the alleged West Bengal SSC recruitment scam, stating that those appointees whose appointments are found to be illegal shall be liable to refund their salaries.

The top court has also permitted the CBI to continue its probe to determine the officials involved but precluded the agency from taking any coercive steps.

The High Court had directed CBI to undertake further investigation and interrogate all persons who had received appointments after the expiry of the panel and after submitting blank OMR sheets. The state had also asked the central probe agency to undertake further investigations concerning the persons involved in the State Government, approving the creation of supernumerary posts to accommodate illegal appointments.

Arguments By The Parties

Sr Advocate Vibha Makhija appearing for those candidates who were not selected by the SSC panel suggested that the better alternative to setting aside the entire selection is rather to knock out those found to be selected through wrong means and instead fill their vacancy again with those in the merit list.

She added that setting aside the entire selection would adversely affect those selected candidates who have now reached the prescribed age limit for appointment.

Sr Advocate Jaideep Gupta appearing for the West Bengal SSC submitted that (1) the High Court's finding that SSC has not co-operated was incorrect considering the various affidavits filed clarifying its stance; (2)on the issue that the number of recommendations made and appointment done were not reconciling, Gupta clarified that whenever a recommendation is made, if the candidate refuses the appointment offer, then SSC board looks at other recommendations.

Sr Advocates PS Patwalia and Karuna Nandy appearing for a few of the candidates(whose appointments were set aside), briefly submitted that until the trial is over, there is no concrete evidence to know which data is original. They said that the data retrieved subsequently from Bansal was 'highly suspect' and could not be relied upon.

Sr Advocate Meenakshi Arora also appearing for a few non-teaching candidates(whose appointments were cancelled) suggested that for it to be concluded as to who is tainted or untainted, it was imperative that individual suspects be given a show cause notice to prove their case in person. This would ensure that principles of natural justice are followed through.

Sr Advocate Dushyant Dave appearing for a few appellants submitted that the CBI inquiry was ordered by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who later resigned and joined the BJP, and argued that the direction was uncalled for since no such prayer for CBI inquiry was made.

Objecting to this, the CJI interjected and said that the case is being heard on merits and not on the politics of the state.

Counsels appearing for the untainted candidates mainly submitted that as per the previous decisions of the Apex Court, it would be unfair to make the innocent candidates suffer who had no involvement in the alleged scam.

Sr Advocate AM Singhvi , appearing for type C and D untainted candidates, added that having segregation of candidates was imperative.

Sr Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi appeared for the State of West Bengal and submitted that as per the CBI report so far, a segregation of the untainted results from the tainted ones was possible.

Background

On April 22, 2024, the Calcutta High Court had invalidated these jobs across government and aided schools. The jobs came under the scanner due to the infamous cash-for-jobs recruitment scam.

The State had argued that the High Court, instead of segregating the valid appointments from the invalid ones, had erroneously set aside the 2016 selection process entirely. It has also been averred that this will affect around 25,000 teaching and non-teaching staff in the State.

It has also been pleaded that the High Court solely relied upon the oral arguments without the support of affidavits. Further, it has been argued that the High Court has acted in utter disregard of the fact that the same will result in a huge vacuum in the State Schools unless a new selection process is completed. The State has emphasized that this will adversely impact the students given that the new academic session is approaching.

The State has also assailed the impugned order on the ground that it ordered the SSC to conduct a new selection process for declared vacancies within two weeks of the upcoming election results without acknowledging the understaffing issue in schools.

Also read - When Can Entire Selection Process Be Set Aside For Irregularities? Supreme Court Lays Down 4 Key Principles

Case Details : THE STATE OF WEST BENGAL vs. BAISHAKHI BHATTACHARYYA (CHATTERJEE) SLP(C) No. 009586 - / 2024 and connected matters

Citation : 2025 LiveLaw (SC) 385

Click here to read the judgment