Latest news with #CalcuttaHighCourt
New Indian Express
6 hours ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Calcutta HC stays Mamata govt's financial relief scheme for non-teaching staff who lost jobs after SC order
KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Friday ordered an interim stay till September 26 on the West Bengal government's financial scheme to provide interim relief for Group C & D non-teaching employees in state-aided schools, who had recently lost their jobs following the Supreme Court order on April 3. Justice Amrita Sinha in the interim order prohibited the state from implementing the scheme till September 26 or until further orders. Earlier, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced a monthly honorarium of Rs 25,000 and Rs 20,000 for some 5,000-odd Group C and D non-teaching employees in state-aided schools who had lost their jobs after the apex court's ruling. The Calcutta High Court's order is related to the West Bengal government's notification providing monthly interim relief of Rs 25,000 and Rs 20,000 respectively to them. Justice Sinha on Friday directed the petitioners to file affidavits within four weeks. The West Bengal government will file an affidavit in reply within a fortnight thereafter before the petition comes up for the next hearing. The waitlisted candidates had filed the petition in the High Court urging for a stay on the state government's relief scheme arguing that the scheme 'frustrated' the Supreme Court order. Reacting to the High Court order, the Trinamool Congress attacked the opposition parties and labelled them as 'real enemies of people of Bengal'. The party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, 'After the Supreme Court's order, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee extended an interim financial allowance to the affected Group-C and Group-D workers. But the Bangla-Birodhi brigade (anti-Bengal brigade) ran to the Calcutta High Court and got it struck down.' He further added, 'They won't help the people, and they won't let anyone else help either. They are enemies of Bengal. Enemies of our people. Plain and simple.'
Hans India
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Hans India
Calcutta High Court Blocks Bengal Government's Stipend Plan For Dismissed Staff
The Calcutta High Court has intervened to block the West Bengal government's attempt to provide monthly stipends to non-teaching staff who lost their positions following a Supreme Court ruling on recruitment irregularities. Justice Amrita Sinha delivered the order on Friday, effectively halting the state government's stipend payments that were designed to support Group C and D non-teaching employees affected by the April Supreme Court judgment. The controversy stems from a major recruitment fraud that occurred in 2016 through the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC). The Supreme Court had previously upheld the Calcutta High Court's decision to terminate the appointments of over 25,000 teaching and non-teaching staff members due to irregularities in the selection process. In April, a Supreme Court bench comprising former Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar characterized the recruitment process as fundamentally flawed and fraudulent. The court found evidence of systematic manipulation including OMR sheet tampering and rank falsification. Following the mass dismissals, the Mamata Banerjee-led state government announced a financial support package for affected non-teaching staff. The scheme proposed monthly stipends of Rs 25,000 for Group C employees and Rs 20,000 for Group D staff members. This compensation plan was the government's response to the widespread job losses resulting from the Supreme Court's strict enforcement of recruitment integrity standards. Multiple petitions were filed in the Calcutta High Court challenging both the government's stipend decision and the format of new recruitment processes being planned for teaching positions. The court reserved judgment on these matters the previous Monday before delivering Friday's ruling. The High Court's intervention reflects ongoing judicial scrutiny of how the state government handles the aftermath of the recruitment scandal. The Supreme Court's April decision was unambiguous in its condemnation of the 2016 recruitment process. The court described the appointments as fraudulent and equivalent to cheating, finding no grounds to overturn the High Court's original dismissal order. However, the Supreme Court did provide some relief by ruling that dismissed employees would not be required to return salaries they had already received during their employment period. The case highlights the broader implications of recruitment fraud in public sector employment. With over 25,000 positions affected across state-run and state-aided schools, the scandal has had significant consequences for both the education system and the individuals whose careers were disrupted. The High Court's latest ruling adds another layer of complexity to the state government's efforts to address the fallout from the recruitment irregularities while maintaining judicial oversight of remedial measures.
Indian Express
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Calcutta High Court's MGNREGA order underlines people shouldn't suffer for the corruption of a few
Written by Purbayan Chakraborty and Mrinalini Paul In a recent verdict, the Calcutta High Court has directed the Centre to resume work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme in West Bengal from August 1. The Centre, through an earlier order dated March 9, 2022, stopped releasing funds for the scheme, citing irregularities under Section 27 of the Act. In May 2023, Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity, a rural workers' trade union, filed a petition in the HC challenging the suspension. The HC order is a much-awaited relief for the state and its millions of NREGA workers. The Right to Livelihood is a fundamental right that flows from Article 21 of the Constitution. Any executive action that seeks to curtail a fundamental right must pass the proportionality test as laid down and consistently employed by the Supreme Court in a series of cases like Association for Democratic Reforms v. Union of India (2024). The test requires that any such executive measure hold a legitimate objective and follow suitable means. It also mandates the use of an equally effective alternative. The impact on the individual's right must not be out of proportion to the objective being pursued. The irregularities were found in only a few of West Bengal's more than 3300 gram panchayats. Instead of taking targeted corrective action, the Centre chose to issue a state-wide blanket stoppage of funds under MGNREGA, rendering millions of rural workers unemployed. This action was neither the least restrictive nor proportionate to the objective that was being pursued. Hence, it failed the proportionality test on both counts. Section 27 of the Act empowers the Centre to stop the funds under the MGNREGA scheme as a last resort in cases of proven irregularities. But it also places a corresponding duty on it to employ remedial measures in a time-bound manner and resume implementation of the scheme within a reasonable period of time. However, in this case, even after more than three years, the Centre failed to resume funding. Therefore, the HC rightly held: 'The scheme of the act does not envisage a situation where it would be put to cold storage for eternity.' Section 27 balances accountability with livelihood — that balance was breached in this case. The HC's order is a reaffirmation that executive in the exercise of their discretionary powers cannot go beyond statutory or constitutional limitations. Corruption is grave but not uncommon in our country. But should the vulnerable people suffer due to corruption at higher levels? The funding was stopped at a time when the MGNREGA could have been a coping mechanism, especially for the thousands of poor rural workers who had returned home due to Covid. Unpaid wages and no new work in sight forced them further towards a vicious cycle of poverty, indebtedness, migration and malnutrition. The deprivation of the state and its population doesn't stop in MNREGA; it extends to other central schemes as well. The Ministry of Rural Development has informed a parliamentary panel that almost Rs 8,000 crore is yet to be released under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Gramin (PMA-G) for West Bengal. In 2023, the state accused the Centre of stopping funds for Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY). However, the then Union Minister Smriti Irani refuted these allegations, saying that the state government was misusing funds and Rs 260 crore 'were lying unused'. West Bengal is also one of the three states in the country that refused to comply with the PM SHRI scheme and, as a result, has not received any funding for the Samagra Shiksha scheme (2024-25). However, the state government's response has been very confusing. Apart from playing the victim, it has rarely seemed to pursue logical or legal action. Often, it rushed to launch the state equivalent of the schemes that are blocked by the Centre. This happened even in the case of MGNREGA. The state launched the Karmashree scheme in 2024, under which every MGNREGA job cardholder household is supposed to get 50 days of work in a year. Launched just before the general elections, in no way, does it match the meticulous provisions of MGNREGA. For instance, Karmashree does not have any separately allocated budget |nor any mention of unemployment allowance. While the HC Order comes as an immediate respite to the state's 257 lakh registered NREGA workers, governments should read its larger message against 'weaponising schemes'. That corruption will not be tolerated is explicit in the order, as the HC empowered the Centre to impose special conditions on the state so that past issues do not recur. But that doesn't mean that people's lives and livelihoods could be compromised. With the assembly elections scheduled next year, the order has been hailed as a victory by both the TMC and BJP, but the real victory lies in the warning of the judiciary that they dare not mix up the politics of corruption and politics of welfare further. Chakraborty is a Kolkata-based lawyer and Paul is a researcher at TISS
India Today
11 hours ago
- Politics
- India Today
Calcutta High Court stops Bengal's stipends for non-teaching staff move
The Calcutta High Court on Friday paused the Bengal government's decision to offer stipends to non-teaching staff of the 2016 batch after the Supreme Court upheld the dismissal of their jobs in April in the jobs-for-cash Amrita Sinha, who had reserved the order last Monday, halted the payment of stipends for Group C and D non-teaching Mamata Banerjee-headed Bengal government announced a Rs 25,000 stipend for Group C staff, and Rs 20,000 for Group D after the top court's massive April Separate petitions were filed at the Calcutta High Court, challenging the format of the fresh selection process for teachers and also Banerjee's decision to provide non-teaching staff with a monthly April, the Supreme Court had blasted the Bengal government as it upheld the High Court's decision to reject the appointments of more than 25,000 teaching and non-teaching staff by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) in 2016 in connection with the jobs-for-cash scam.A bench of former Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar called the selection process fraudulent, amounting to cheating."We find no reason to interfere with the decision of the High Court that the services of tainted candidates and their appointment be terminated. Since their appointment was by fraud, this amounts to cheating," the bench High Court had cited serious irregularities such as OMR sheet tampering and rank manipulation, thereby dismissing the appointments of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff in state-run and state-aided schools. In its April ruling, the Supreme Court, however, said that candidates already appointed need not hand over the salary given so far. IN THIS STORY#West Bengal#Mamata Banerjee
The Hindu
11 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Calcutta High Court restrains West Bengal Government from giving monetary support to 'jobless' Group C, D school employees
The Calcutta High Court on Friday (June 20, 2025) restrained the West Bengal Government from implementing a scheme till September 26 to provide monetary support to non-teaching staff who lost their jobs following a Supreme Court judgment that held the selection process tainted. The Court had on June 9, 2025 reserved judgment on the petitions, which opposed the payment of ₹25,000 each to Group C and ₹20,000 each to Group D employees who lost their jobs on the Supreme Court Order, by the State. Retain school staff till new recruitment, Supreme Court tells West Bengal In an interim order, Justice Amrita Sinha restrained the State Government from giving any effect or further effect to the scheme for providing monetary relief to the non-teaching staff till September 26 or until further order, whichever is earlier. She directed the State Government to file its affidavit in opposition to the contentions of the petitioners in four weeks and reply by the petitioners within a fortnight thereafter. The West Bengal Government had introduced a scheme to provide "limited livelihood, support and social security on humanitarian ground" on temporary basis, subject to orders of any competent court, to distressed families of non-teaching staff in Group C and D categories, who were recruited through the 2016 selection process conducted by the West Bengal School Service Commission. Nearly, 26,000 teaching and non-teaching staff of West Bengal Government-sponsored and -aided schools lost their jobs on a Supreme Court judgment, which found the 2016 selection process tainted.
