The Supreme Court has upheld the Calcutta High Court order scrapping the appointment of 25,000 teachers in West Bengal. The court stated that the hiring process was 'tainted beyond resolution' and the legitimacy of the entire process was affected. The appointments were divided into three categories: tainted candidates whose appointments are terminated and must return salaries, untainted candidates whose appointments are terminated but need not return salaries, and untainted candidates appointed to other government departments who can reapply.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Let's begin with the news break coming in from the courts with the Supreme Court delivering
00:05a big blow to the Mamata government in the Bengal job scam.
00:10Scam in the hiring allegedly of 25,000 Bengal teachers is under the scanner and the Supreme
00:15Court has upheld a high court order that previously scrapped these hirings.
00:20A petition was filed before the Supreme Court challenging the high court order that sought
00:23relief for the Mamata government on this.
00:26No relief coming in for the government as the Supreme Court has clearly said that the
00:30teacher hiring process was tainted and so has gone ahead and scrapped all the hirings
00:36as previously done by the Calcutta High Court.
00:39The Supreme Court in its observation said that this job scam taint is beyond resolution,
00:44the legitimacy of the process has been affected, the whole process is tainted and so the hirings
00:50cannot go on as they were, they have been scrapped now.
00:53Remember, this was the order that had come in from the Calcutta High Court previously
00:57which was challenged in the Supreme Court when you had a petition essentially seeking
01:01that the hirings remain as was.
01:04The Supreme Court has refused agreeing with the high court in this matter.
01:07Srishti Ojha, legal correspondent is joining us with more details on this.
01:11Srishti, give us a sense of really what the Supreme Court had to say while essentially
01:15upholding what the Calcutta High Court had said on this matter.
01:17Well, after this, definitely a big order.
01:20We are talking about the appointments of around 25,000 teaching and non-teaching posts
01:25in both government and government-aided schools in 2016 which were done by the West Bengal
01:29SSC.
01:30This was under challenge before Calcutta High Court and High Court's order was then challenged
01:35by the state of West Bengal before Supreme Court.
01:37Now the Supreme Court has today upheld the high court order which terminated the appointment
01:43of tainted candidates in this particular, tainted candidates in 2016 and the direction
01:50that they gave where they were supposed to also return back their salaries.
01:53The court has made some of the changes in direction while mostly upholding the high
01:57court order, has made some changes in the direction which were issued.
02:02The court has basically divided it into three categories.
02:05The tainted candidates, their appointments are terminated and they have to return their
02:09salaries as well.
02:11As far as untainted candidates are concerned, their appointments will also be terminated.
02:18However, they will not have to return back their salaries.
02:22The court has said that even for candidates who have not been specifically declared tainted,
02:28entire process has rightly been declared null and void and due to several violations, their
02:33appointments will also have to go.
02:35The third category is of untainted candidates who were appointed to other government departments
02:42before they took part in this process.
02:45Those persons will be able to apply to those earlier departments and that entire process
02:49will have to be completed in three months.
02:51But a big remark that has come from the Supreme Court here is that the entire selection process
02:57in this case was vitiated and tainted beyond resolution because that was one thing that
03:01the court was considering during the hearing that whether it is possible to distinguish
03:07the tainted and untainted bit or was the entire process vitiated to a point that the entire
03:13process needs to go.
03:14So, the court has agreed with the High Court's conclusion.
03:17They have said that there were attempts also to cover up which further tainted the process
03:21and thereafter leading to the entire legitimacy of the process getting affected.
03:28Back to you.
03:29You know with this kind of an order coming in from the Supreme Court, there will again
03:33be a focus on the entire scam and the allegations against the Mamata government in this job
03:38scam, the hiring of 25,000 teachers with the Supreme Court saying very clearly that the
03:43entire process is tainted.
03:46It's not limited to just one aspect which is why they've said that the whole process
03:50needs to be scrapped as the Calcutta High Court also had said.
03:53Srishti, just in fact to throw some context really to what the Supreme Court has said,
03:58can you also give us details of really the petition?
04:01How really did they argue against the scrapping of this entire process?
04:10Well, we're talking about West Bengal's plea against this particular High Court order.
04:14Now, the state before, the state had before Supreme Court said that instead of segregating
04:20a...
04:21Srishti, just stay with me.
04:23Stay with me Srishti.
04:24I just want to bring in a view from the Bharatiya Janata Party on this.
04:27Priyanka Tibrewal joining us on this broadcast.
04:29Priyanka, we're now putting out a news break of the Supreme Court going ahead and upholding
04:34the Calcutta High Court decision of scrapping the Bengal teacher hirings.
04:38Your reaction to this?
04:40See, in the very initial stage only we knew that scams are there in the government, each
04:47and every department, whether it was education, whether it was food, whether it was health.
04:52Then also investigation process followed, and after investigation things came out that
04:57there were scams like this.
04:59So that is what the High Court said, that there has been a lot of irregularities in
05:06the entire process, and the process had to be done freshly.
05:10So again, when the Supreme Court is now on the same opinion, so you can understand that
05:15what kind of government this is, which is running in West Bengal, because the Chief
05:19Minister is busy reciting poems in London, head, shoulders, knees and toes, and this
05:25is what the ministers are doing here.
05:28They are playing with the careers of innocent children who have studied, of innocent youth
05:34who had appeared.
05:35So those who paid the money to them, their names were there in the list.
05:40This is all which has come out in the investigation.
05:43No but previously when, you know, Mamata Banerjee, Priyanka Tibrewal was asked about this, she
05:48dismissed all of these claims of there being a scam.
05:51Even on the Calcutta High Court order, she denounced their entire verdict.
05:54Oh, this is a shameless government and a Chief Minister which we have in West Bengal.
06:01Because after so many scams, you know, other governments, maybe you will find that they
06:04are going to the jail because one or two scams are coming out.
06:07This government, there are scams in each and every department.
06:10Thereafter, she has the audacity to go to Oxford and then deliver a speech on, a kindergarten
06:15speech to the children of a graduate level.
06:18Now look at the audacity she has.
06:20So this is what, you know, in Hindi we say, that those who have no shame, who have no
06:25respect, how can they be disrespected?
06:27So this is the status of the government here in West Bengal.
06:30They have lost any kind of respect they had.
06:31Okay.
06:32Priyanka Tibrewal, thank you very much for joining us with your view on this news break
06:35coming in.
06:36Let's also get you another reaction from the BGP Union Minister, Sukanta Machundar speaking.
06:41Today, because of the Supreme Court's ruling, the verdict, in Bengal, around 26,000-25,000
06:50teachers, non-teachers, who have been working since 2016, have lost their jobs.
06:57All the families are on the streets.
06:59Who is responsible for this?
07:01Mamata Banerjee is responsible.
07:03And Mamata Banerjee is responsible because Mamata Banerjee, the people of her party,
07:08who had earned money, who are not capable, she gave them jobs.
07:14To save Mamata Banerjee, to save the money that her party leaders had taken, Mamata Banerjee
07:21set all those capable people, who had worked hard, who had jobs, all of them on fire.
07:32More than 25,000-26,000 families have come on the streets.
07:36Mamata Banerjee is responsible for this.
07:38And the BGP will take action against this.
07:41As soon as Ram Navami is over, the BGP will take action.
07:47And we will start the agitation right now.
07:51And the BGP, after 6th April, after Ram Navami, will take action against the government.
08:00Mamata Banerjee.
08:30Remember, the TMC government has been brazening it out, claiming there is no evidence of a scam.