Specified tainted candidates can't apply for fresh SSC jobs, rules Calcutta High Court

The bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya has directed the SSC to cancel all applications by the tainted candidates, whose list was earlier provided by the commission to the Supreme Court.

Senior advocate and Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Kalyan Banerjee argued the "tainted candidates" were already penalised by the annulment of their jobs and a fine.

He argued, "Can there be a double punishment?"

Advocate General Kishore Datta, who was representing the State, argued that the Supreme Court had never mentioned in its ruling that the "tainted candidates" would be ineligible for fresh recruitments.

Advocate Banerjee said the "tainted candidates" were not given the age relaxation which was provided to the rest in the fresh recruitment process.

Senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said the Supreme Court had upheld the High Court division bench order that asked for fresh recruitment as per 2016 rules.

Justice Bhattachayya, however, refused to interfere with the marks allotment rule citing it as a policy decision.

In the last week of May, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced the notification for fresh recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff amid the job losers' protests against the state government.

Mamata announced the advertisement will be given for recruitment to 24,203 vacant posts.

The government has created additional vacant posts which will also be filled up through this examination.

On April 17, the Supreme Court had allowed West Bengal government teachers, who have not been identified as "tainted" in the School Service Commission (SSC) scam, to continue working till fresh appointments.

The deadline to complete the recruitment process has been set as December 31.

However, the SSC is yet to completely segregate the lists of "tainted" and "untainted" candidates who were recruited in 2016.

Calcutta HC cancels 2016 recruitments

In a massive judgement, the Supreme Court in April cancelled appointments of nearly 26,000 teaching and non-teaching staff by the SSC upholding the Calcutta High Court's order.

The top court passed the order after the SSC failed to provide two separate lists of deserving and undeserving candidates after the government faced corruption allegations in the recruitment process.

A top court bench comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar said the selection process was "vitiated and tainted by fraud".

In April 2024, the Calcutta High Court had cancelled recruitment of nearly 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff in government-sponsored and government-aided schools, dismissing the entire 2016 teacher recruitment panel.

The panel was constituted by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).

Erstwhile state education minister Partha Chatterjee, former primary education board president and Trinamool MLA Manik Bhattacharya, youth leader Kuntal Ghosh are among the people who were arrested so far in connection with the scam.

Former Calcutta High Court judge and now a BJP MP, Abhijit Ganguly had ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged irregularities in the recruitment process.