A division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday permitted the West Bengal government and the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) to challenge a single bench order that barred candidates identified as “tainted” in the 2016 school teacher recruitment scam from participating in the Commission’s fresh recruitment drive.
The division bench, headed by Justice Soumen Sen, granted the state and the WBSSC leave to file their appeal and assured that the matter would be taken up for early hearing.
The development follows a Monday order by Justice Saugata Bhattacharya, who directed that all tainted candidates named in connection with the 2016 selection process must be excluded from the ongoing recruitment exercise notified by the WBSSC on May 30. The fresh recruitment drive was initiated in compliance with a Supreme Court directive issued on April 17, which annulled the appointments of nearly 26,000 teaching and non-teaching staff due to irregularities in the 2016 process.
Justice Bhattacharya ordered that if any tainted candidate had already applied under the May 30 notification, their applications would stand cancelled. He also directed strict adherence to the timeline laid down by the Supreme Court to bring the selection process to its logical end.
Following the single bench’s ruling, the counsel for the SSC requested a stay on the order to allow the tainted candidates to participate in the recruitment. However, Justice Bhattacharya declined the request after hearing arguments.
The May 30 notification invited applications for the recruitment of assistant teachers at the upper primary level and for classes 9 to 12 in government and government-aided schools across West Bengal. The petitioners challenging the notification contended that the inclusion of candidates previously found to have benefitted from irregularities violated the Supreme Court’s directions.
