‘Enough is enough’: HC nixes plea by SSC ‘tainted’ candidates
Times of India | 3 September 2025
Kolkata: "So far as tainted is concerned, enough is enough," Calcutta High Court on Tuesday told the counsel of tainted candidates who claimed they were wrongly included in West Bengal School Service Commission's list of "1806 names".
Refusing to entertain their plea, Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya asked why the "tainted" were moving court five days before initiation of the selection process when they had been disallowed to work until Dec 31 following the Supreme Court's judgment on the matter.
Justice Bhattacharyya told counsel Anindya Lahiri: "You were not permitted to work until Dec 31, so why did you not do anything at that point in time? Now, at the fag end, just before initiation of the selection process when the list is published, you are trying to unsettle it."
Lahiri's submission was that the categorisation of tainted is threefold: ones appointed beyond the panel, outside the panel and those who submitted blank OMR sheets. He said OMR mismatch is not a categorisation under tainted, which made the petitioners "untainted". Some "tainted" candidates did not even figure in the SSC list, Lahiri added.
Kalyan Banerjee, representing WBCSSC, said OMR mismatch was "the greatest tainted candidate".
Lahiri argued that 183 candidates appointed after the expiry of the panel were not being treated as tainted and allowed to sit for the selection process as well. Banerjee said if SSC had missed out on a tainted candidate, the same would be taken care of during verification.
The "tainted" candidates have been debarred from taking the SSC examinations scheduled for Sept 7 and 14, as directed by the Supreme Court. Justice Bhattacharyya also raised doubt on whether he could be dealing with the matter considering that the apex court was seized of the matter.
"Why are you not going to the Supreme Court?" he asked.
Justice Bhattacharyya noted that SSC cancelled admit cards it issued to these candidates after the publication of the list, and none of the candidates was allowed to continue as assistant teachers for classes 9, 10, 11 and 12 in state-run schools until Dec 31, 2025, as per the SC's orders on April 3, 2025.
"In consideration of the gamut of illegalities and irregularities, it is permissible to infer that there are categories beyond the categorisation made by the division bench," the court said in its order.