Mamata's flip-flop on teacher scam invites advocates' wrath

Advocates who fought for candidates victimised by Bengal's largest recruitment scam have accused the Mamata Banerjee government of flip-flopping on the issue after the Supreme Court upheld the Calcutta High Court judgment, which ordered the sacking of the entire panel of 26,000 teachers and non-teaching staff.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

"The Mamata Banerjee government is continuously trying to mislead the people, especially those unfortunate individuals who lost their jobs because of the misdeeds of Trinamool Congress leaders who collected money in exchange for jobs," said senior advocate and CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, who led the legal fight.

Advocates pointed out that, on one hand, the government has accepted the Supreme Court's directive to start a fresh recruitment process by publishing a new advertisement on or before May 31, and to complete the entire process by December 31, 2025.

"On the other hand, Mamata Banerjee is misleading the people by publicly stating that the State will file a review petition against the judgment passed by the bench comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar. Mamata is giving false hope to those who lost their jobs," said advocate Sabyasachi Chatterjee.

"How can you accept a judgment and also file a review against it?" he asked.

In a related order, the Supreme Court, keeping students' interests in mind, allowed assistant teachers not implicated in wrongdoing to continue teaching Classes 9-12 until the end of the year. However, the court ruled that no non-teaching staff or teachers identified as tainted will be allowed to remain in their posts.

The order came shortly after the Supreme Court upheld the Calcutta High Court's decision to cancel the 2016 recruitment of more than 25,700 teachers and non-teaching staff for state-run and state-aided schools in West Bengal. The apex court dismissed appeals filed by the State Government, the West Bengal School Service Commission, and 125 of the recruited candidates.