An angry Trinamul Congress supremo also held BJP and CPI(M) responsible for their bid to "collapse the education system" of the state through the legal battle against her government
Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday refused to accept the Supreme Court verdict that upheld a year-old Calcutta High Court order of termination of the 2016-appointment of 25,572 teachers and non-teachers in the School Service Commission (SSC) jobs scam.
An angry Trinamul Congress supremo also held BJP and CPI(M) responsible for their bid to "collapse the education system" of the state through the legal battle against her government. She further offered support to the job losers legally by setting up a forum for them and decided to meet them on April 7 at Netaji Indoor Stadium.
Within hours of the verdict, the CM said at the state secretariat Nabanna, “We have the highest regards to the judiciary. There is no question about it. We don't have any allegations against any judge also. We respect each of them. But as a citizen, I can't accept the judgment. I have every right to feel so.”
She however observed while former Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud had put a stay on the HC order during his tenure, his successor, Sanjiv Khanna, whose division bench upheld the lower court’s judgment, could have looked into the fate of the job losers from a “humanitarian angle.”
As BJP came down heavily on the TMC chief over the SC verdict, Ms Banerjee tried to duck the volley of attacks by quickly distancing herself and perhaps her party also. “SSC is an autonomous body. We do not interfere in it,” she added before training her guns on two parliamentarians, one each from the BJP and Left, for their instrumental role in the case.
One of them is Abhijit Gangopadhyay who once heard the SSC recruitment scam before taking voluntary retirement as a judge of the HC and then contesting the Lok Sabha Election for BJP to become an MP. Another was Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, a CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP, who fought for the petitioners.
Ms Banerjee alleged, “BJP and CPI(M) are responsible for this outcome. They want to collapse the education system which is the gateway to careers. Why is Bengal being targeted again and again? Why is so much anger there against Bengal? What happened to Vyapam case? Why hasn't been any action there?” She wondered if a judge could get transferred to Calcutta HC from Delhi HC after cash recovery from his official residence, the joblosers might have been treated similarly instead getting sacked.
