All ‘untainted’ teachers eligible for fresh SSC test: SC
Times of India | 22 August 2025
Kolkata: All "untainted" teachers, who were part of the 2016 SSC selection panel and lost their jobs following a court order on April 3, were allowed to sit for the fresh recruitment test and they were exempted from the marks criteria—50% in graduation or post-graduation—the Supreme Court said on Thursday. The SC also granted them extra 10 days to submit their applications, and allowed SSC to extend the recruitment timeline.
The SC granted the breather for marks criteria as back in 2016, the cap was set at 45%. As a result, many of the old candidates were no longer even eligible to apply, as the cap was raised to 50% this time. An SC bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma said, "All selected and appointed untainted candidates, who were permitted to continue service till 31.12.2025, shall be allowed to participate in the fresh selection process.
" The bench said for them, SSC should not insist on the new eligibility criteria of 50% marks in graduation or PG. Mehebub Mandal, one of the teachers who lost job, said, "We wanted two exams —for teachers who lost their jobs and another, open to all. We wanted to postpone the exam date, and we have some other demands, too. None of our demands have been fulfilled... the SC has given its observation. Now we are waiting to see what the SSC does.
"The fresh written test for assistant teachers to fill 35,726 vacant posts for classes IX-X will be held on Sept 7 and that for XI-XII on Sept 14. A total of 5.8 lakh applications have been submitted, among which 13,000 are from "untainted" teachers.