WBSSC job case: Calcutta HC reserves verdict on petition challenging Bengal govt stipend for non-teaching staff

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Friday concluded the hearing on a petition challenging the West Bengal government notification for a monthly stipend to be paid to non-teaching staff, under Group-C and Group-D categories, who lost their jobs in state-run schools in the state following a Supreme Court order, and reserved its verdict.
The counsels for both the petitioners and the state government submitted their closing remarks before the single-judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha, who then reserved the judgment.
The state government counsel, in his closing remarks, questioned the interest of the petitioners in blocking the stipend for the job-losing non-teaching staff. The counsel for the petitioner, in his counter-argument, claimed that since the stipend is being paid from the state government exchequer constituted by public money, anyone has the right to seek justification behind how that money is spent.
During the previous hearing in the matter on June 9, Justice Sinha raised questions on the basis of the calculations on which stipend amounts for Group-C and Group-D staff were determined.
At the same time, she also questioned whether there had been instances in the past of the state government paying stipends to job-losing state government employees. She also questioned what the state government would get in return from those job-losing non-teaching staff against the stipend paid to them.
Last month, the West Bengal government issued a notification announcing the new scheme under the state Labour Department. Under the "West Bengal Livelihood and Special Security Interim Scheme', the job-losing Group-C staff would be entitled to a monthly stipend of Rs 25,000, while those in the Group D category would be entitled to Rs 20,000 monthly.
Announcing the launch of the scheme, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that the scheme was planned under the state Labour Department because of the tendencies of some people and vested interests to file public interest litigations at the Calcutta High Court against any decision of the state government.
However, with three successive petitions being filed at the Calcutta High Court, the state government's desire to avoid a legal battle over the scheme was not fulfilled.
On April 3, the Supreme Court upheld the Calcutta High Court order that annulled 25,753 school appointments made through the WBSSC, observing that the panel had to be scrapped entirely due to the authorities' failure to distinguish between "tainted" and "untainted" candidates.
The state government and the WBSSC have since filed review petitions in the Supreme Court seeking reconsideration of the order.

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