Kolkata/IBNS: In a massive order, the Calcutta High Court on Monday cancelled recruitment of 24,000 teaching and non-teaching staff in government-sponsored and government-aided schools, dismissing the entire 2016 teacher recruitment panel, media reports said.

The panel was constituted by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).

A division bench comprising Justices Debangshu Basak and Md. Shabbar Rashidi said during the hearing that teachers who were illegally recruited will have to return their salaries within four weeks.

The bench has also ordered a reevaluation of 23 lakh OMR sheets which were filled during the recruitment process.

The court has asked WBSSC to start a new recruitment process.

Erstwhile state education minister Partha Chatterjee, former primary education board president and Trinamool MLA Manik Bhattacharya, youth leader Kuntal Ghosh are among the people who have been arrested so far in connection with the scam.

Former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Ganguly, who is now contesting the Lok Sabha elections on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket, had ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged irregularities in the recruitment process.