Order and chaos

Even the opposition may not be safe from the backlash of the recent Calcutta High Court order that cost more than 25,000 jobs

- NILADRY SARKAR

LUBANA PARVIN WAS sweating profusely on the premises of the Calcutta High Court on April 21. And it was not just the heat wave in Kolkata that troubled her, the 36-year-old said. She was also intensely anxious.

The court was about to announce its verdict in the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam. Parvin was among the candidates who, despite being on the merit list, had failed to get a teaching job. She had also joined cause with one of the multiple petitions that the court had clubbed together and was about to declare its judgment on.

When the verdict came, at around 11am, anxious sweat turned into tears of joy. "We finally have justice," said Parvin, a resident of Khidirpur in south Kolkata. The court had nullified the entire panel of teaching and non-teaching staff appointed through the State Level Selection Test in 2016. Parvin said: "We saw candidates who were behind us in the merit list getting jobs. We are hoping that we will soon get those jobs."

The 282-page judgment rendered 25,753 teaching (assistant teacher for class 9-10 and class 11-12) and non-teaching staff (Group C and D clerks) unemployed. This left everyone from lawyers to street vendors wondering if Indian judiciary had ever seen a verdict that impacted so many jobs at once.

The court ordered that a new recruitment process must begin within 15 days of the end of the Lok Sabha elections. It also mandated that those recruited unlawfully must return the full salary they earned with 12 per cent annual interest.