West Bengal SSC Recruitment Case | Calcutta High Court considers cancer patient Soma Das’s Job as 24,000 jobs null and void dgtl

The Calcutta High Court gave its verdict in the SSC case on Monday. About 26,000 people lost their jobs. According to the court, the recruitment of all the candidates who got jobs in the SSC examination in 2016 is cancelled. No job validity after expiry of panel. But, Soma Das’s job remained the only one to get a job in this panel. A division bench of Justice Debanshu Basak and Justice Mohammad Shabbar Rashidi said that Soma’s appointment is not being canceled on ‘humanitarian grounds’.

Soma Das’s lawyer Gopa Biswas said, “Soma, who is suffering from cancer, sat on dharna demanding a job. The then Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay recommended his job to the Chief Minister on humanitarian grounds. As such, the Cabinet approved the appointment. It has no direct relation with recruitment process.”

Job seekers have been protesting for a long time complaining that they did not get jobs despite their qualifications. They sat on dharna in front of the statue of Gandhi at Dharmatala. They spend their days hoping for justice. Soma, a girl from the village of Birbhum, was seen on that stage. He was also fighting for survival along with the job fight.

In 2016, Soma appeared for the Class IX-X Teacher Recruitment Examination (SLST). It is alleged that he was not given the job despite his name in the merit list of that appointment. Based on that complaint, the case was filed in the High Court. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2019. Soma, a girl from Ashrampara village in Paikpara village panchayat of Nalhati, has been suffering from blood cancer since February that year. But he did not give up the fight. Ailing Soma has been protesting on the streets of Kolkata day after day, taking the sun and rain in his head to demand a job.

Soma has repeatedly appeared in the courtroom of former judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay in the SSC case. The former judge came to know about Soma’s physical condition from the litigants. Hearing all this, he requested the state government to give Soma a job. The government kept the request of former Justice Gangopadhyay. Commission appoints Soma. In 2022, the commission gave a job recommendation letter to Soma, who suffered from cancer, following the request of the High Court. He was given a job in Birbhum. Soma was appointed as a Bengali teacher at Madhura High School in Nalhati-1 Block, Birbhum.

Soma has been working in that school since then. But even if he got a job, he stood by those who were struggling to get hired. Despite his illness and job, he came to the stage again and again. In Monday’s judgment, the High Court did not cancel the appointment of that Monday.