The Supreme Court has directed the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) to publish, within seven days, the list of teachers whose appointments were quashed after the apex court found large-scale fraud and manipulation in the 2016 recruitment process.
The order came while hearing a petition filed by higher secondary teachers (Classes 11–12), who were declared eligible to sit for the upcoming recruitment examination but challenged the WBSSC’s May 30 notification. The petitioners alleged that the notification was ambiguous and risked allowing tainted candidates to participate in the fresh test.
During the hearing, senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee, representing WBSSC, initially submitted that the tainted list had already been prepared. However, he later informed the court that this was not the case. Taking exception to this shift in stance, the bench asked if the commission was willing to disclose the list to prevent ineligible candidates from appearing in the exams scheduled for September 7 and 14. Banerjee eventually agreed, following which the court recorded the assurance in its order.
Senior advocates Menaka Guruswamy and Abhijeet Upadhyay, appearing for the untainted teachers, argued that the May 30 notification imposed fresh restrictions on age and educational qualifications that should not apply to their clients. The court noted these submissions and directed WBSSC to file its counter-affidavit, listing the matter for further hearing on October 8.
Earlier, on April 17, the Supreme Court had permitted untainted teachers to continue in service until December 31, 2025, directing the state to complete the fresh recruitment process by then in the interest of students.
The WBSSC scam has rocked West Bengal politics and education. In its April 3 judgment, the Supreme Court noted that “manipulations and frauds on a large scale, coupled with the attempted cover-up, have dented the selection process beyond repair and partial redemption.” The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which investigated the matter, alleged that candidates paid leaders associated with the ruling Trinamool Congress to secure jobs. Some selected candidates, it said, had even submitted blank answer sheets or benefitted from arbitrary rank-jumping.
The WBSSC has acknowledged that at least 15,800 untainted candidates are eligible for the fresh process. Meanwhile, the state government’s review plea against the April 3 order was dismissed by the apex court on August 5, which reiterated that protecting the integrity of recruitment outweighed the anguish of untainted appointees losing their positions.
