West Bengal School Service Commission seeks clarification on Supreme Court order for teacher recruitment.
Times of India | 5 April 2025
123 Kolkata: Asked by the Bengal govt to immediately implement the Supreme Court order and roll out a fresh recruitment process, the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) on Friday said they are likely to file a plea in the SC seeking clarification on whether the 25,752 sacked teachers can continue until the new recruitment process is completed to stop the state school education system from collapsing. The SSC made it clear that any new selection process, unless expedited on court orders, cannot be wrapped up before a year, let alone three months.
WBSSC chairperson Siddhartha Majumder told reporters, "We received a letter from the state that asked us to start a recruitment procedure as quickly as possible following the Supreme Court order. We will comply with the SC order, but before that, we seek legal opinion since we have some doubts that need to be cleared first." Majumder also stated that the letter from the state asked it to start fresh recruitment in compliance with the Supreme Court order.
In the backdrop of multiple consultations with legal experts, the issue of how to separate the "tainted" from the "untainted" also came up for discussion. The SC order terminated the jobs of both the "tainted" and "untainted" but asked the "tainted" to refund their salaries. Most importantly, the "untainted" were allowed to be part of the new selection process with age concessions. Majumder also said that it needs to be clarified who will participate in the fresh recruitment process, on which the commission will seek legal advice too.
State education minister Bratya Basu said, "The CM already stated this, so I don't have much to add. I am also repeating today, representing the education dept, that we are politically and morally supporting them. WBSSC segregated "tainted" and "untainted", but the Supreme Court was not satisfied with it. I would appeal for those who are deserving but deprived to be considered from a humanitarian perspective from all sides."
Explaining the facts, the commission said that 26 lakh candidates applied for the exam and 22 lakhs appeared for the exam. A total of 1.4 lakh candidates appeared for classes IX-X teaching posts, while for classes XI-XII, 1.5 lakh candidates appeared for the exam. The remaining 19 lakhs appeared for the group-C and group-D posts. So, there is a need for sizeable time frame to conduct fresh hiring for such a huge number of candidates. Legal experts opined that to expedite the process, the process can be broken into two blocks — the three-lakh-odd for teachers first, and then the 19-lakh-odd for non-teaching posts — which may help fill the teacher vacancies quickly.
The commission submitted a list categorically defining tainted candidates they found in teaching posts for IX-X, XI-XII, Group C, and Group D candidates, totalling 6,276. The Supreme Court order copy said, "The court can rely on the contradictory pleas taken by tainted and untainted candidates. In the given facts and circumstances, the failure of WBSSC to keep scanned/mirror copies of the OMR sheets assumes great importance." Reacting to questions from the media on the contradiction regarding "tainted" and "untainted", Majumder said, "We mentioned everything in the writ petition to the Supreme Court, but we couldn't satisfy the court."