SC verdict: Judge-turned-MP to write to Mamata seeking panel to save jobs of eligible teachers

Supreme Court

Calcutta High Court judge-turned-BJP MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay on Tuesday said he will write a letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urging her to form a committee which will help find a mechanism to save the jobs of "eligible teachers" who became unemployed following a Supreme Court order last week.

Gangopadhyay also demanded that the School Service Commission (SSC) initiate the process of segregating the ineligible candidates from among the over 25,000 teaching and non-teaching staff of state government-sponsored and aided schools rendered jobless after the top court’s order, by scrutinising OMR sheets. He claimed that the task could easily be carried out by the Commission.

The Supreme Court on April 3 upheld a 2024 Calcutta High Court judgment annulling the recruitment of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff appointed through the 2016 School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment drive, terming the entire selection process "vitiated and tainted".

Those who were rendered jobless claimed that the reason behind their plight was the inability of the SSC to differentiate between the candidates who secured employment through fraudulent means and those who did not.

Gangopadhyay told a leading Bengali TV channel on Tuesday night that he would send a letter to Banerjee by Wednesday afternoon urging her to take immediate steps to form a committee which will help find a mechanism to save the jobs of "eligible teachers".

Responding positively to a proposal by Education Minister Bratya Basu, who was also contacted by the TV channel during a live phone-in programme, Gangopadhyay said, "I will go to state education department headquarters Bikash Bhavan at around 2 pm tomorrow with the letter addressed to CM and hand it over to you or any other official present there." Earlier, the MP suggested that the chief minister constitute a committee, headed by the education minister, at the earliest to find out a mechanism so that the eligible teachers can return to service.

During the phone-in programme, Basu requested Gangopadhyay to send his suggestions in the form of a letter to the CM, instead of levelling allegations that she interfered in the functioning of the SSC, an autonomous body.

Claiming that Banerjee does not interfere in the functioning of autonomous bodies, Basu said to the BJP MP: "You have told the media that your suggestions are above politics.” The minister told Gangopadhyay that if he believed in what he said, the former judge should send a letter to Banerjee noting down his recommendations.

“I promise I will ensure that the letter containing your proposals reaches the CM," Basu said. Gangopadhyay readily accepted his suggestion and said he will personally hand over the letter to the minister on Wednesday.

The MP initially said said he would hand over the letter to the CM at the state headquarter ‘Nabanna’ at 12 noon on Wednesday. Basu then gently told him that she might not be present at Nabanna at that time and offered to accept the letter himself.

Earlier in the day, Gangopadhyay went to the SSC and claimed that the exercise of identifying figures of tainted and untainted candidates can be performed by the Commission by checking OMR sheets which must be in its possession.

Accompanied by a group of around 20 "eligible teachers", Gangopadhyay went to the SSC office to meet its Chairman Siddhartha Majumder, but he was not present.

The BJP Lok Sabha MP then met some other officials and handed over a memorandum demanding that the Commission begin the process of identifying the deserving candidates by checking OMR sheets which, he claimed, can easily be done by the SSC.

"If the SSC is unable to check OMRs, which must be with them, we will presume they are under pressure (not to do it). But they have to this," he said.

The Tamluk MP said he will come to the SSC office again on April 9 and meet the chairman to press for the demand. "I am asking Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to constitute a committee at the earliest to find out a mechanism so that the eligible teachers can return to service. Even now eligible and tainted candidates can be segregated," Gangopadhyay said.

This is the second time in four days that the former judge made the suggestion to the CM. On April 4, Gangopadhyay urged the CM to form a committee comprising the advocate general and lawyers to find out a mechanism so that a deserving teacher can return to service.

He had suggested that such a panel, headed by the Education Minister, should have the School Service Commission chairman and may also have Gangopadhyay himself. A review petition can be filed in the Supreme Court to prepare a list of all those who secured the job honestly, he had said.