The Supreme Court on Tuesday provided significant relief to the Mamata Banerjee government by overturning the Calcutta High Court's ruling that had called for a CBI investigation into the creation of additional posts for the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) recruitment in 2022.
However, a bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar made it clear that the investigation into other aspects related to the appointment of 25,753 teachers and staff in government and aided schools in West Bengal will continue, PTI reported.
A "supernumerary post" refers to a temporary position created to accommodate an employee who is entitled to a regular post that is currently unavailable.
The top court on April 3 invalidated the appointment of 25,753 teachers and staffers, terming the entire selection process "vitiated and tainted".
What Did The Bench Say?
"With regard to the direction of investigation by the CBI on the decision taken to create supernumerary posts, the bench had made it clear that it would independently deal with the plea raised by the West Bengal government while delivering the verdict.
"Having regard to the aforesaid discussion, we are of the view that the high court was not justified in referring the issue of the creation of supernumerary posts to the CBI pursuant to the cabinet decision," said the bench that took up this particular aspect of the plea raised by the state government, as quoted by PTI.
The bench referred to constitutional schemes on cabinet decisions and said they cannot be questioned in a court of law.
“We clarify that our observations in this order are limited to the extent of direction to investigate the creation of supernumerary posts and do not in any way reflect upon the investigation and chargesheets filed by CBI in other aspects,” the CJI said.
