Calcutta HC questions West Bengal about monthly allowance given to sacked non-teaching staff

The Calcutta High Court on Monday questioned the West Bengal government’s decision to provide a monthly allowance to a group of non-teaching staff who had lost their jobs after the Supreme Court in April found irregularities in the 2016 recruitment process, Live Law reported.

Justice Amrita Sinha reserved the order in the matter but verbally questioned the state government for “spending public money” through the disbursal of the amount, The Hindu reported.

The judge was hearing a writ petition challenging the provision of the allowance to the dismissed staff, according to the newspaper. The petition was filed by a candidate on the waitlist who was not recruited despite being on the merit list, allegedly due to irregularities in the hiring process.

On April 3, the Supreme Court upheld the Calcutta High Court’s April 2024 order terminating the appointment of about 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staff by West Bengal’s School Service Commission. The bench passed the order after observing that the recruitment process was “vitiated by manipulation and fraud”.

The top court on April 17 permitted “untainted” teachers to be retained until the end of the academic year or until fresh appointments are made, whichever is earlier. However, it did not grant relief to Group C and Group D employees, or non-teaching staff, whose appointments were also cancelled.

In response, the state government had...

Read more