Calcutta High Court today struck down appointments of 1,911 candidates after the School service commission notified the number in its affidavit filed in the court today. In the same vein it also authorized the CBI to interrogate those if necessary by taking them in its custody. In addition it ruled that from now on they would be barred from entering the school premises and salaries drawn so far have to be refunded.

As hinted yesterday, that it would strike down appointments of 2,819 aspirants, the Calcutta High Court today asked the School Service Commission to prepare the list of such candidates and asked it to notify it in an affidavit in court. The SSC had conceded in court that their appointments were based on the manipulation of numbers in OMR sheets, which were at variance with the numbers stored in the server by the agency hired for its assessment.

By Striking down the appointments of 1,911 candidates, Justice Gangopadhay had also asked the commission to withdraw the recommendation letters offered to them within five minutes and upload the same on its website immediately.

Of these, 1,911 individuals had received appointment letters or were employed in different state-run schools in the state. In the case of these candidates, the WBSSC will either withdraw their appointment letters or will terminate them from their services. In case of the remaining 908, who are either on the waiting list or have not been issued appointment letters, the WBSSC will not progress further with their appointments.

On Friday afternoon, WBSSC updated the singlejudge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay about the beginning of the process on this count.

Justice Gangopadhyay gave an ultimatum to the former chairman of WBSSC Subiresh Bhattacharya, who is currently in judicial custody in connection with the teaching and non- teaching staff recruitment irregularities scam to speak out to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team investing the scam.

“I ask Subiresh Bhattacharya to name the masterminds of such illegal recruitment under whose instructions a scam of such a magnitude took place. Name those who are behind the scam,” Justice Gangopadhyay said in the court on Friday. He also observed that, if necessary, the family members of Bhattacharya will be given central armed forces security cover.

Justice Gangopadhyay also gave a free-hand to the CBI to take the illegally appointed candidates in custody and interrogate them to identify the persons whom they gave money for jobs.