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State of West Bengal v. Baishakhi Bhattacharyya (Chatterjee)

Civil Appeal · 2025 INSC 437Decided 3 Apr 2025
C.A. No.-004800-004800 - 2025 (arising out of S.L.P. (C) No. 9586 of 2024, with a large batch of connected appeals)
Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna · Justice Sanjay Kumar

Background

In 2016 the West Bengal Central School Service Commission (WBSSC) ran a recruitment drive for over 24,000 posts: Assistant Teachers for Classes IX-X and XI-XII, and non-teaching Group C and D staff. A writ petition by Baishakhi Bhattacharyya, alleging denial of age relaxation, became the lead case before the Calcutta High Court, and many more petitions followed alleging rank-jumping, out-of-panel appointments, and destroyed OMR (answer) sheets. The High Court ordered a CBI investigation, which uncovered large-scale manipulation of scores, and on 22.04.2024 the Calcutta High Court cancelled the entire selection process en bloc. Both the tainted/untainted selectees and the State of West Bengal appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court upheld the cancellation of the entire selection process, holding that the evidence, including a forensic match of data recovered from hard disks belonging to a scanning-agency employee, proved systemic, large-scale manipulation of OMR scores, rank-jumping, and appointments beyond the panel's validity that could not be cleanly separated from valid appointments. The Court applied the settled principle that mass cancellation is justified where fraud is widespread and tainted candidates cannot practically be segregated from untainted ones, distinguishing this from cases of isolated wrongdoing. It upheld termination and recovery of dues from candidates found tainted, but ruled that untainted candidates need not repay salaries already received (though their appointments still stand cancelled) and gave them the right to rejoin prior government posts and to age-relaxed re-entry into a fresh selection process.

Lesson Learnt

When a recruitment process is proven to be corrupted by large-scale, systemic fraud, courts can cancel the entire process rather than only the individually-proven wrongdoers, but innocent candidates caught in the cancellation are entitled to safeguards like protection from repayment demands and a fair chance to re-apply.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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