WBSSC uploads images of OMR sheets of aspirants who appeared in 2016 school jobs exam

A division bench of the Calcutta High Court had ordered the termination of 25,752 employees in secondary and higher secondary schools over irregularities in the 2016 recruitment process.

Kolkata: The West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) has uploaded on its website images of OMR sheets of candidates who appeared in the 2016 recruitment tests for teachers in compliance with the Supreme Court's directive, officials said.

A division bench of the Calcutta High Court had, on April 22, 2024, ordered the termination of 25,752 teaching and non-teaching employees in secondary and higher secondary schools over irregularities in the 2016 recruitment process. It had also directed the uploading of the OMR sheets. The Supreme Court upheld the order on April 3, 2025.

These employees included 17,209 teachers, and the rest were Group C and Group D staffers.

WBSSC chairman Siddhartha Majumdar told PTI on Monday that scanned images of the OMR sheets of 3.5 lakh candidates who appeared in the assistant teacher recruitment exam for Classes 9 and 10, and 11 and 12 under the first State Level Selection Test-2016, were uploaded on Saturday midnight.

"The candidates can see their OMR sheets on the commission's website," he said, adding that the answer sheets of non-teaching SLST 2016 candidates will be uploaded soon.

A notice on the website stated that the images of the OMR sheets "received in hard disc drives from the CBI are being uploaded in compliance with the spirit of the Supreme Court judgement and order dated April 3, 2025".

The move comes ahead of a scheduled hearing in the apex court in connection with a contempt petition seeking publication of the scanned OMR sheets.

The development follows a petition filed before the Supreme Court last year, urging it to direct the WBSSC to upload the scanned OMR sheets immediately. The top court issued notices to the state school education department and the WBSSC after admitting the petition in March this year.

"The scanned images have now been uploaded in keeping with the spirit of the Supreme Court's order," Majumdar said, but denied any perception that the move has been prompted by the change in government in the state.

A WBSSC official said the OMR sheets were uploaded at a time when the commission had initiated fresh recruitment of teachers through a new selection process initiated in September 2025.

The commission, which conducted fresh recruitment examinations in September last year, has already started counselling for the appointment of assistant teachers at the higher secondary level against 12,514 vacant posts.