Illegally collected evidence is also acceptable in India, why did CJI Sanjiv Khanna say this on the teacher recruitment case

New Delhi. The Supreme Court said on Monday in the West Bengal teacher recruitment case that those who have got the job ‘in wrong ways’ can be ‘thrown out’. With this statement, the Supreme Court reserved its verdict on the petitions against the decision of the Calcutta High Court dated April 22, 2024 declaring the appointment of 25,753 teachers and other employees in government and government-aided schools of West Bengal as illegal.

A bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar said, ‘The arguments have been heard. The decision is reserved.’ The bench got angry when senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for some candidates, raised the issue of alleged political bias of former High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay. Justice Gangopadhyay had ordered a CBI probe into the alleged recruitment scam (while being part of the high court).

Dave said it is a fact that the said Justice (Gangopadhyay) had taken some political decision. When the Chief Justice tried to stop Dave from making arguments against a former high court judge, he said, “This is distasteful to the judiciary.” Justice Gangopadhyay later joined politics.

“Mr Dave. This is unacceptable. We have started proceedings in this case in a fair manner,” the Chief Justice said. Justice Khanna said, “We are not going into political discussions but into evidence… the law in India is that even evidence collected illegally is admissible.”

The bench heard 124 petitions against the high court verdict, including one filed by the West Bengal government. Representing both the sides, senior advocates including Mukul Rohatgi, Ranjit Kumar, Abhishek Singhvi, Dushyant Dave, PS Patwalia, Rakesh Dwivedi, Maninder Singh, Shyam Divan, Prashant Bhushan, Meenakshi Arora and Karuna Nandy argued the case.

The Chief Justice sought the number of persons who have been wrongly appointed from the lawyers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the West Bengal Staff Selection Committee, which is probing the case. The CBI had taken over the investigation of the case on the order of the Calcutta High Court.

The High Court had declared the appointment of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff in government and government-aided schools in West Bengal as invalid, citing irregularities like tampering of OMR sheets and ‘rank-jumping’. On May 7 last year, the apex court had stayed the high court order on the appointments made by the state’s School Service Commission (SSC). However, the apex court had allowed the CBI to continue its investigation in the case.

The case is based on alleged irregularities in the 2016 recruitment process conducted by the West Bengal SSC, in which 23 lakh candidates appeared for 24,640 posts and a total of 25,753 appointment letters were issued.