New Delhi, Apr 2 (PTI) The Supreme Court is scheduled to deliver its verdict on Thursday on pleas against the April 22, 2024 Calcutta High Court decision invalidating the appointment of 25,753 teachers and other staff in state-run and state-aided schools of West Bengal.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar had on February 10 reserved its judgement on a batch of petitions.
The apex court had observed that those who got jobs "wrongly" could be "knocked out".
The bench heard over 120 petitions, including the one filed by the West Bengal government, against the verdict.
The top court commenced the final hearing on December 19 last year and heard the parties on January 15, 27 and February 10 before reserving the verdict on the politically-sensitive case.
The high court, citing irregularities such as OMR sheet tampering and rank-jumping, had invalidated the appointment of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff in state-run and state-aided schools of West Bengal.
On May 7 last year, the apex court stayed the high court's order over the appointments made by the state's school service commission (SSC). The top court, however, permitted the CBI to continue with its probe in the matter.
The case stemmed from the alleged irregularities in the 2016 recruitment process conducted by the West Bengal SSC in which 23 lakh candidates appeared for 24,640 posts and a total of 25,753 appointment letters were issued.
The high court had instructed those appointed outside the officially available 24,640 vacancies; appointed after the expiry of the official recruitment date and those who submitted blank OMR sheets but obtained appointments, to return all remunerations and benefits received by them with 12 per cent interest.