SC questions creation of supernumerary posts

MP, 20 Dec 2024, Kolkata: During the hearing of the SSC recruitment scam in West Bengal, the Supreme Court on Thursday questioned why the state-appointed teachers were in supernumerary posts rather than identifying and removing persons who were appointed illegally. 

The Apex Court was hearing arguments on a batch of pleas challenging the Calcutta High Court’s April 22 decision invalidating the appointment of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff in state-run and state-aided schools of Bengal. 

The Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar, while addressing the West Bengal counsel Rakesh Dwivedi, questioned if at all the state had any intention of throwing out the illegally appointed candidates, knowing that irregularities were committed. 

“Why instead create supernumerary posts?” the bench asked. He also submitted that the state supports the proposition that it is now impossible to separate the tainted candidates from untainted ones. 

The bench wondered why the original OMR sheets were not available, observing that the original paper is the OMR sheet which is the primary evidence. “If any manipulation is done on the main evidence or the main paper, it will be only visible in the OMR sheets,” the court said. 

The counsel submitted that since the originals are not available, there is no way to authenticate whether they were identical to the scanned OMR sheets available on the server. 

The Apex Court asked the CBI’s counsel whether the probe agency was able to ascertain the date on which the OMR data was captured. 

The bench observed: “One thing is very strange that people who are not even recommended and who have not qualified... they were issued letters…it was a very serious thing”. 

Over 23 lakh candidates had appeared for the state-level selection test 2016 for 24,640 vacant posts. A total of 25,753 appointment letters were issued against 24,640 vacancies. 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/sc-questions-creation-of-supernumerary-posts-591404