WBSSC job case: Calcutta HC directs exclusion of identified 'tainted' candidates from fresh recruitment process

Kolkata, July 7 (IANS) The Calcutta High Court on Monday clearly stated that the candidates already identified as "tainted" should be excluded from the fresh selection process of the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) for filling up the vacant posts for teachers arising out of cancellation of 25,753 school jobs following an order of the Supreme Court in April.

The single-judge bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharya also said that if any such candidate who had already been identified as “tainted” had submitted his application for the fresh recruitment process, his application should be summarily rejected.

The bench also made it clear that allowing candidates who are already identified as "tainted" to participate in the fresh recruitment process should be treated as a violation of the Supreme Court order in April, which also barred such candidates from participating in the fresh recruitment process.

Although the WBSSC’s counsel argued that the Supreme Court's April order had nowhere specifically stated that candidates already identified as "tainted" could not participate in the fresh recruitment process, Justice Bhattacharya did not accept the argument.

Rather, he observed that such an argument from the commission was not acceptable. Justice Bhattacharya also observed that those who got teaching jobs through unfair means should not get another chance. According to him, it was not acceptable to the court that the "tainted" candidates would appear for the fresh recruitment process and also take advantage of the new weightage criterion carrying 10 marks for prior teaching experience.

The notification for the fresh recruitment was challenged at the Calcutta High Court on the grounds that it violated the Supreme Court order. The petitioners claimed that the procedure to be followed in the fresh recruitment process should have followed the same rules which were followed in 2016, the entire panel of which was cancelled by the apex court in April.

On April 3, a Supreme Court bench comprising then Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar upheld a previous order of the Calcutta High Court that annulled 25,753 school appointments made through the WBSSC.

The apex court observed that the panel had to be scrapped entirely due to the authorities' failure to distinguish between "tainted" and "untainted" candidates.

The state government and the WBSSC have since filed review petitions in the Supreme Court seeking reconsideration of the order.

--IANS

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