In a move that sliced off one layer of scrutiny but kept the core judgment untouched, the Supreme Court on Tuesday tossed out a directive for a CBI probe into West Bengal’s creation of supernumerary teaching posts — additional jobs crafted by the State Cabinet in its school system. But the rest of the fallout from the Calcutta High Court’s sweeping order still stands.
This decision came from a bench led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar, who made it clear that while the call for a CBI investigation was going too far, the cancellation of 25,753 teacher and staff appointments in State-run and aided schools remains unshaken.
Just days earlier, on April 3, the same Supreme Court bench had upheld the High Court’s dramatic axing of 24,000 jobs handed out by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) in 2016. The reason: fraud and manipulation in the now-infamous “cash-for-jobs” scandal that rocked the state’s education department.
Despite the clean sweep of appointments, the Court took a measured stance — allowing those already paid to keep their salaries. But with the CBI now off the case when it comes to the surplus posts, the larger issue of political accountability over job creation might escape deeper investigation.
For now, the high-stakes cleanup in Bengal’s education hiring mess marches on — minus the central sleuths.
