West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today, Monday, April 22, termed the Calcutta High Court order cancelling all appointments made through a 2016 teacher recruitment test as “illegal”, adding that her government will challenge the verdict.

While addressing an election rally at Raiganj in North Bengal, Banerjee also accused BJP leaders of influencing a section of the judiciary and judgments, reported PTI.

“The court verdict cancelling all recruitments is illegal. We stand by those who lost jobs. We will ensure you get justice, and challenge the order in a higher court,” she said.

The Calcutta High Court, today, April 22, ordered the cancellation of all appointments made through the recruitment process of the State Level Selection Test-2016 (SLST) in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided schools, declaring it “null and void.”

A division bench comprising justices Debangsu Basak and Md Shabbar Rashidi also directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to undertake further investigation with respect to the appointment process, and submit a report in three months.

The bench directed the West Bengal School Service Commission to initiate a fresh appointment process, added PTI.

Over 23 lakh candidates had appeared for the SLST-2016 for 24,640 vacant posts.

A total of 25,753 appointment letters were issued against the vacancies, said Firdaus Shamim, a lawyer for some of the petitioners.

WBSSC to move SC

Meanwhile, West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) Chairman Siddharth Majumder has also said that the commission will move the Supreme Court against the order of Calcutta High Court’s division bench which cancelled 25,753 appointments made in teaching and non-teaching categories in 2016.

“I am not happy with the order. There are allegations of irregularities for hardly around 5,000 appointments. But why were the appointments of around 26,000 candidates cancelled? This is a very harsh verdict and we will be moving to the Supreme Court against it,” Majumder said today, April 22.