School job: Calcutta HC directs WBSSC to identify ‘tainted’ candidates qualifying for interview in fresh recruitment of teachers

Kolkata, Nov 19 (LatestNewsX) A single-judge Bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Wednesday directed the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) to identify the tainted candidates qualifying for the interview for the fresh recruitment process of higher secondary teachers in state-run schools in the state and also publish their names.

The single-judge Bench of Justice Amrita Sinha on Wednesday stated this at the end of the first hearing on a petition filed at her Bench challenging the results of the written examination for fresh recruitment of higher secondary teachers, which was published last week.

Justice Sinha directed the commission to publish the names of such “tainted” candidates qualifying for interviews, along with the names of their guardians and addresses.

Justice Sinha also observed that since there could be more than one “tainted” candidate with the same name, the lists should be published along with the names of the guardians and addresses of such candidates.

The next hearing in the matter is on December 3, and by then the commission will have to publish the list as directed by Justice Sinha.

The fresh recruitment is taking place to fill vacancies arising from the cancellation of around 26,000 school jobs by a Division Bench of the Supreme Court earlier this year. While pronouncing that judgement in April this year, the apex court barred the “tainted” teachers, who had obtained the jobs after paying money, from participating in the fresh recruitment process.

The petitioner in the case has alleged that, defying the direction of the Supreme Court earlier this year, the WBSSC allowed several “tainted” candidates to appear for the written examination in the fresh recruitment process. Many of them even qualified for the interview as per the results of the written exam published last week.

Around 20,000 candidates who appeared for the written test for the fresh recruitment process have qualified for the interview. The process of verifying their documents began on November 18.

The Supreme Court, on April 3 this year, upheld an earlier order by a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court cancelling the entire panel of WBSSC for 2016.

The Supreme Court also accepted the Calcutta High Court’s argument that the entire panel had to be cancelled since, despite repeated insistence by both the High Court as well as the apex court, neither the state education department nor the commission furnished two separate lists segregating the “untainted” candidates from the “tainted” ones.

The apex court directed that the entire fresh recruitment process will have to be completed by December 31 this year.

Although the Supreme Court barred the “tainted” teachers from participating in the fresh recruitment process, it allowed “untainted” teachers to participate.

src/rad