SSC to face consequences even if a single ‘tainted’ candidate sits for exam: SC
The Statesman | 29 August 2025
The Supreme Court on Thursday reprimanded the School Service Commission in West Bengal (WBSSC) for allowing “ineligible candidates” to appear in the recruitment examinations.
A division bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Satish Chandra Sharma told the SSC’s lawyer that if the complainant’s lawyer can prove that ineligible candidates have been selected again, then the SSC will face severe criticism and suffer the consequences.
The Court ordered the WBSSC to publish the list of “tainted candidates” in the cash-for-jobs scam within seven days. In the order, the judges clarified that the date of the recruitment examination, scheduled to be held on September 7, will remain the same.
“The (Calcutta) high court had ordered that the list of tainted candidates be published. We did not interfere with it. But the list has still not been published,” the bench observed. The judges asked why had the SSC gone to the High Court for the “ineligible candidates”? No argument is sufficient for this, unless some ministers wanted those candidates to remain.
The Supreme Court observed that the selection process was tainted because some ministers wanted their candidates to remain. The board, SSC and the state government are responsible for the flawed selection process.
On April 3, the apex court had upheld a verdict of the Calcutta High Court, cancelling the jobs of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff who had appeared in the 2016 State Level Selection Test (SLST) conducted by the WBSSC.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision to keep the examination date unchanged, the teachers who had qualified and lost their jobs started a movement at the SSC headquarters at Bikash Bhavan in Salt Lake. They have been protesting for a long time, demanding the publication of the tainted candidates’ list.
The state education minister Bratya Basu had, however, said that the list would be sent to the education department and refrained from publishing it.
Some job seekers had filed a petition in the top court to change the date of the SSC recruitment exam, after several eligible candidates of the SLST 2016 with 45%-50% marks in the undergraduate examinations got a fresh opportunity due to a 10-day extension in the application window following a court order.
Meanwhile, in Kolkata, Suman Biswas, one of the “untainted” teachers who lost their jobs, said a march will be held till Bikash Bhavan on September 1, following which the teachers would sit in protest demonstrations. “The condition of the teachers is terrible. We have called for a march to Bikash Bhavan on September 1. We want to discuss the issue with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and SSC chairman Siddharth Majumdar to request postponing the examination by three months.”
He added, “The exam is being conducted on the orders of the Supreme Court. The SSC chairman said in an affidavit that there are 15,800 qualified teachers. The top court has ordered the list of tainted teachers to be published within a week. Why will we take the exam after ten years? That is why we have called for the march.”