In a big setback to Mamata Banerjee government, the Calcutta High Court has cancelled the 2016 recruitment process for government-sponsored and aided schools. As many as 25,753 appointees are set to lose their jobs and return the salaries they have withdrawn since joining with a 12% interest, according to the order.

A division bench of Justices Debangsu Basak and Md Shabbar Rashidi said the school teachers recruited illegally after submitting blank OMR sheets must return their salaries within four weeks. District magistrates have been tasked with collecting the money from these teachers.

The court has also ordered the CBI to further probe the appointment process and submit a report within three months. It has also asked the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) to begin a fresh appointment process.

The state government is likely to challenge the order in the Supreme Court. Several Trinamool leaders, including former state minister Partha Chatterjee, and former officials are in jail in connection with the teacher recruitment case.

Over 23 lakh candidates had appeared for the State Level Selection Test-2016 for 24,640 vacant posts while 25,753 appointment letters were issued against the vacancies, according to the lawyer for some of the petitioners.

The Calcutta High Court had last year dismissed panels set up by the WBSCC in 2016 and the cancelled appointment of 36,000 untrained primary teachers. The figure was later modified to 32,000.

Abhijit Ganguly, the judge who had passed the order, resigned after several run-ins with the ruling Trinamool and is now a BJP candidate from Tamluk in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

Days later after the initial judgment, another single-judge bench had paused it until further orders.

Actor Ranveer Singh has filed a complaint over r a widely-circulated deepfake video that showed him endorsing a political party.

While the video – an interview he gave to the news agency ANI during his recent visit to Varanasi – is genuine, the audio was generated through an AI-enabled tool.
  
In the deepfake, Ranveer Singh was seen criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi over unemployment and inflation.

The altered video later concluded with a message urging people to vote for Congress.

“Deepfake se bacho doston (Friends, beware of deepfakes),” he had posted on Instagram after the deepfake went viral.

Ranveer Singh’s team said a First Information Report or FIR has been registered and investigation is on in the case. “Yes, we have filed the police complaint and FIR has been lodged against the handle that was promoting the AI-generated deepfake video of Ranveer Singh,” a spokesperson said. 

Earlier, a deepfake video of actor Aamir Khan in which he was seen promoting a political party, had gone viral on social media.

“We want to clarify that Aamir Khan has never endorsed any political party throughout his 35-year career. He has dedicated his efforts to raising awareness through Election Commission public awareness campaigns for many past elections,” Mr Khan’s spokesperson had said in a statement.

The spread of actors’ deepfakes underlines the potential role such AI-generated content can play in the Lok Sabha polls.

Deepfakes, are being increasingly used in elections elsewhere in the world, including in the US, Pakistan and Indonesia.

The opposition on Monday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his ‘illegal immigrants’ remarks made at an election rally in Rajasthan’s Banswara on Sunday. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that BJP was trying to ‘divert from real issues’ while Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said PM Modi had become ‘disillusioned.’