SC verdict on WBSSC jobs: Ineligible candidates have to return Rs 11 lakh to Rs 26 lakh

Kolkata: As the Supreme Court, on Thursday, made it clear that the ineligible candidates in the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) panel for 2016 who secured appointments against payment of money will not only lose their jobs but will also have to pay back salary received by them so far along with interest.

The initial calculation reveals that, on average, each such candidate will have to return an amount between Rs 11 lakh and Rs 26 lakh, said WBSSC sources.

However, the amount for each such candidate might increase according to the years of service and existing pay scales. The initial rough calculation has been made based on the starting pay scales for such ineligible candidates. Those from the higher secondary-level teachers’ category will have to return the maximum money, while the non-teaching staff in Group-D will have to make the least payment.

The period for such candidates starts from 2019, considering that year was the beginning of service for candidates selected in WBSSC’s 2016 panel and will end in 2024. It was in April last year that a division bench of Calcutta High Court ordered the cancellation of 25,753 jobs in the teaching and non-teaching categories.

The apex court’s division bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar, on Thursday, upheld the order passed in April 2024 by Calcutta High Court’s division bench of Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi.

An ineligible candidate who secured the teaching job at the higher secondary level with a starting average monthly gross salary of around Rs 44,000 will have to return around Rs 26 lakh. The other factors remain the same that the period during which the return of money will be applicable is between 2019 and 2024, and there was no increment in his or her salary during the interim period.

In the next category will come the ineligible candidates securing teaching jobs at the secondary-level. Each such candidate, with a starting average monthly gross salary of around Rs 40,000, will have to return around Rs 24 lakh, with other factors remaining the same.

In the third category of the non-teaching staff in the Group-C category, each such candidate, with a starting average monthly gross salary of around Rs 26,000, will have to return around Rs 16 lakh.

The final and fourth category includes candidates selected for non-teaching jobs in the Group-D category. Each such candidate, with a starting average monthly gross salary of around Rs 19,000, will have to return around Rs 11 lakh.

IANS