The West Bengal Education Department on Wednesday questioned before the Calcutta High Court the maintainability of a contempt petition that claimed non-compliance of its order regarding 26,000 school jobs in the state.  The West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) and the secondary education Board raised questions about the admissibility of the case before the division bench of Justice Debangshu Basak and Justice Shabbat Rashidi.

The petitioners, complaining of violation of the judgment passed by the Calcutta HC on April 22, 2024 and “as modified” by the Supreme Court on April 3 and on April 17 this year, moved the contempt petition before the HC. They claimed that the education department has not uploaded OMR sheets, available in three hard disks on the SSC website and that these be made available to the public for viewing as was ordered by the HC.

The division bench asked what has been done to comply with the order. “They want uploading of sheets, recovery of  salaries of the tainted candidates and you are the authority to make the recovery. Uploading of OMR remains untouched, you are presently responsible for the recovery of money..What have you done,” the court observed.

The education department’s counsel submitted that since the SC had modified some of the directions of the HC, a contempt application can be moved before the top court only. “The HC orders have been modified by the Supreme Court. The HC order ceases to exist due to modifications. The contempt has to be heard by the last court which passed the order,” SSC counsel submitted. The SSC counsel further said that some parts of the verdict have been revised and the rest dismissed and therefore, the court cannot hear this case.

Justice Basak counter questioned, “…Leaving aside the admissibility, we want to see what steps have been taken.”  The matter will be heard on Monday.