The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside a Calcutta High Court order directing the Central Bureau of Investigation to look into the West Bengal government’s decision to create supernumerary posts in teachers’ appointments, reported ANI.

A “supernumerary post” is a temporary position created to accommodate an employee entitled to a regular post that is currently unavailable.

A bench led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna was hearing petitions filed by the West Bengal government challenging the judgement delivered by the Calcutta High Court in April 2024.

The High Court had declared as null and void the 2016 State Level Selection Test for recruitment in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided schools, ordering the cancellation of about 25,000 appointments made through it.

It had also asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe the appointment process.

The Supreme Court bench noted on Tuesday that courts were barred from investigating Cabinet decisions and added that the order issued by the High Court was incorrect, NDTV reported. However, it upheld the continuation of the central agency investigation into other aspects of the appointments, The Times of India reported.

The High Court had passed its direction based on the findings of a re-evaluation of the Optical Mark Recognition sheets from the 2016 recruitment exam in the case.

The re-evaluation found that the selected teachers had been recruited against blank Optical Mark Recognition sheets.

On April 3, the Supreme Court upheld the portion of the High Court order terminating the appointments. “Regarding findings of this case, entire selection process is vitiated by manipulation and fraud and credibility and legitimacy is denuded,” the bench said.

The Supreme Court added: “Tainted candidates must be terminated and appointments were resultant of cheating and thus fraud.”

On Monday, the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education moved the Supreme Court seeking a modification of its order.

The state board asked the court to allow teachers “not found to be tainted” by the bribery allegations to continue their work until the end of the academic year or until fresh appointments are made, whichever is earlier.

The state board told the Supreme Court that after its order, “services of 17,206 out of the 1,51,568 teachers, i.e 11.35% of the existing teachers, are to be terminated”.

This “would have a devastating impact across the schools in the state”, The Indian Express quoted the board as having stated.

“The teacher strength of 1,51,568 (excluding headmasters) in the state is already strained, with most schools relying on a single teacher per subject for Classes 5 to 10,” added the board.

This petition was filed on the same day West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she would do everything possible to restore the dignity of those who lost their jobs in the state.

“Please don’t consider that we have accepted it [the order],” the Trinamool Congress chief said during a meeting in Kolkata with some of the teachers affected by the order. “We are not stone-hearted, and I can even be jailed for saying this, but I don’t care.”

Banerjee, however, said that the state government respected the Supreme Court ruling and added that the administration was taking steps to handle the situation with “utmost care and fairness”.