SSC scam fallout: Calcutta HC bars tainted candidates from participating in fresh school jobs recruitment

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Monday directed the West Bengal School Service Commission to debar the identified tainted candidates of the 2016 selection process from participating in the 2025 fresh recruitment procedure which the WBSSC has recently notified as per directions of the Supreme Court.

The court further ordered that if any such tainted candidate is found to have already applied for the job, the SSC shall consider such application deemed to be cancelled.

The bench of Justice Sougata Bhattacharya passed the directions, following the hearing of multiple petitions challenging the 2025 recruitment guidelines issued by the SSC and unambiguously stated that the commission will have to complete the fresh selection process as per the timeline set by the apex court.

Back-to-back notifications for fresh recruitment to the vacant teaching and non-teaching positions in state-aided schools were issued by the SSC from May 30 onwards, the application deadline for which is July 15. As per education department records, over 3.5 lakh applications have been received till date for teaching posts itself.

The fresh notices were issued in the wake of the April 3 Supreme Court order which scrapped the entire 2016 SLST recruitment panel and annulled 25,753 appointments of teachers of classes IX-XII as well as Group C and Group D staff.

The court observed that large-scale corruption had "tainted and vitiated" beyond redemption the entire selection process.

The top court ordered that the SSC must complete its fresh selection for the vacant positions by December 31 this year.

The court modified its earlier order on April 17 by stating that only teachers who were identified as untainted could continue teaching in their respective positions till the fresh recruitment process was complete and allowed them to participate in the new selection process afresh.

In their instant appeal before the high court, petitioners challenged the recruitment guidelines, which allowed the "tainted" teachers to apply afresh and in fact, awarded an additional 10 marks maximum for experience.

Petitioners, while submitting that the current guidelines stood in violation of the Supreme Court order, claimed that the recruitment should be made according to selection rules issued by the SSC in 2016.

Appearing on behalf of the commission, TMC leader and senior advocate Kalyan Bandyopadhyay argued that nowhere does the Supreme Court order specifically prevent the identified-as-ineligible candidates of the 2016 panel from participating in the new selection process.

The top court also never ruled in favour of ignoring the merits of experience while passing its direction to scrap the previous panel and ordering a new one, he said.

Bandyopadhyay submitted that disallowing the candidates, who have already lost their jobs, from participating in the new selection would mean they would be punished twice for an alleged crime they have committed once.

"It is clear that both the state government as well as the SSC are still hell-bent on standing with the tainted teachers who secured appointment with unfair means. But the court has rejected their argument," Firdaus Shamim, an advocate for the petitioners, said.

Responding to the allegation TMC spokesperson Jay Prakash Majumdar said, "The state government has always prioritised the interests of the people who lost their jobs in this whole murky affair. There is no collision of interests between the state and those who are seeking jobs in schools. It will keep acting as per directions of the apex court and at the same time explore legal avenues to offer relief to those who are suffering."