Kolkata, April 8 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside the Calcutta High Court's CBI probe order into the role of West Bengal government officials involved in creating supernumerary posts of 6,861 teachers and non-teaching staff to allegedly accommodate those appointed through illegal means in the SSC cash-for-jobs scam.

The decision comes as a breather for the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her entire Cabinet in the wake of Apex Court's recent judgement in the SSC scam case where it invalidated the appointments of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff working in the state-run and aided schools.

Bengal Education minister Bratya Basu said that even as the Opposition will continue to float propagandas, truth shall always prevail. In this case, the court's verdict ensured the same. Certain TMC leaders have called it a defeat of the Opposition in trying to malign the Mamata Banerjee-led state government.

The bench of CJI Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar considered the observations made in the High Court's order where it was mentioned that the state government had in fact passed a Cabinet decision approved by the Governor for the creation of supernumerary posts to accommodate the alleged illegal appointees.

The said Cabinet decision was passed as an order dated May 19, 2022 while the challenge to the SSC appointments was pending before the High Court. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the state of West Bengal, submitted that no appointments have been made of the wait-listed candidates subsequent to the Cabinet decision.

The bench reportedly noted that in the main writ petition before the High Court, no specific prayer was made to challenge the Cabinet decision nor was there a prayer that the state government's order be made the subject matter of the police bureau or CBI investigation.

The court noted that Article 74 and 163 (3) provides that any advice tendered by the ministers/ council of ministers to the President/ Governor cannot become a subject of inquiry in any court.

The Apex Court bench observed that the High Court was "not justified" in referring the issue of creation of supernumerary posts to CBI. The direction of the High Court was set aside by the Supreme Court.

The court, however, clarified that the present observations won't affect the other aspects that the CBI is investigating concerning the teachers' recruitment scam.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.