The plight of ‘justice’ in West Bengal: Teachers, who lost their jobs due to scam by TMC Ministers, now get brutally thrashed by Mamata’s police for protesting
West Bengal is in a state of complete chaos under the rule of Trinamool Congress government, led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. First, a whopping 25,753 teachers lost their jobs in the 2016 West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment scam carried out by sitting Ministers in the TMC government. Now, the jobless teachers are being mercilessly thrashed by Mamata’s police for protesting against the government due to loss of livelihood.
On Thursday (15th May), the teachers who lost their jobs due to the complicity of the Mamata Banerjee-led-West Bengal government held a protests outside the West Bengal Education Department heaquarters dubbed ‘Bikash Bhavan’ in Kolkata.
During the demonstrations, the angry and mentally distraught teachers broke the main gate of the building. Soon after, Mamata’s police force resorted to unspeakable brutality against the protestors.
The cops used their batons to inflict serious injuries and bodily harm on the teachers, who are now rendered jobless due to the 2016 WBSSC scam.
The police, alongside the Rapid Action Force (RAF,) were equipped with tear gas vehicles in advance to quell democratic protests against the Mamata government.
Visuals of women crying and men lying on the ground in bloodied state were caught on camera.
Despite the police brutality, the protesting teachers remained undettered. Some of them had to be rushed to hospitals for immediate medical attention.
While speaking to The Indian Express, a teacher remarked, “This is the real face of the Bengal government. They are beating us up and are not even providing us ambulances to take the injured to hospital. They only blew a siren and warned us to move away quickly.”
Another protester stated, “Why should we suffer when we gave no bribes? Why should we appear in the examination again? We got the job only after taking the exam.”
The new set of protests began on Wednesday (14th May). It was led by more than 1000 teachers who were identified as ‘not specifically tainted’ and allowed to continue their teaching jobs until December 2025.
They were miffed after learning that the West Bengal School Education Department and School Service Commission (SSC) filed a review petition in the Supreme Court without consulting them. The demonstration was dubbed ‘Bikash Bhawan Abhijan.’
One teacher told The Indian Express, “A protester said, “They are protecting the thieves. We must be reinstated with dignity. What is wrong with our demands? The goons of political leaders are coming and beating us up.”
In the meantime, the spokesperson of the teachers Mehaboob Mondol informed that TMC leader Sabyasachi Dutta and his supporters had assaulted them with helmets.
Dutta, who serves as the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation chairman, was greeted with ‘go back’ slogans and labels like ‘chor’ (thief).
Mehaboob Mondol sought immediate intervention of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and said that the sacked teachers are fed up with the West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu.
It must be mentioned that many TMC politicians such as Partha Chatterjee, Manik Bhattacharya, Jiban Krishna Saha, Santanu Kundu and Kuntal Ghosh were involved in the 2016 WBSSC recruitment scam.
Verdict by the Supreme Court of India
In May 2024, the Supreme Court of India stayed the order of the Calcutta High Court, wherein it directed the cancellation of 25,752 appointments. It, however refused to put a stay on the CBI investigation in the case.
“The public job is so scarce….Nothing remains if the faith of the public goes. This is systemic fraud. Public jobs are extremely scarce today and are looked at for social mobility. What remains in the system if their appointments are also maligned? People will lose faith, how do you countenance this?” the apex court noted.
“Either you have the data or you do not have it…You were duty-bound to maintain the documents in digitised form. Now, it is obvious that there is no data. You are unaware of the fact that your service provider has engaged another agency. You had to maintain supervisory control,” it further added.
On 3rd April 2025, the Supreme Court of India upheld [pdf] the verdict of the Calcutta High Court and noted systemic irregularities, malaise/ fraud in the 2016 WBSSC recruitment case. Due to a compromise in the overall integrity of the recruitment process, it was cancelled in its entirety.
“In our opinion, this is a case wherein the entire selection process has been vitiated and tainted beyond resolution. Manipulations and frauds on a large scale, coupled with the attempted cover-up, have dented the selection process beyond repair and partial redemption. The credibility and legitimacy of the selection are denuded,” the apex court observed.
The WBSSC had argued that the entire recruitment process should not be annulled. The Supreme Court, however found no merit in the argument.
“We may have accepted this argument if WBSSC had the original physical OMR sheets or the mirror copy of the OMR sheets. However, WBSSC accepts that they do not have the physical OMR sheets as they were destroyed in terms of
Rule 21 of the Class IX and X and Class XI and XII Rules, which require retention of the OMR sheets for only one year,” it added.
The apex court further pointed out that there was no rationale behind destroying the OMR sheets for Group C and D employees, given that the recruitment was underway even after the validity of the recruitment panel had expired.
It also underlined the illegality in the extension of the recruitment panel. “There is no doubt that the counselling process and appointments made to the post of Assistant Teachers for classes IX-X and XI-XII were made after the expiry of the panel. This is illegal and contrary to the rules,” the Supreme Court observed.
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