Publish ‘tainted’ names & addresses: HC tells SSC amid dispute over interview list
Telegraph | 20 November 2025
Justice Amrita Sinha of Calcutta High Court on Wednesday issued an interim order asking the school service commission (SSC) to publish the complete list of 1,806 “tainted” candidates, including their addresses and other details, at the earliest.
The order came during the hearing of a petition that alleged the SSC’s preliminary interview list for recruitment of higher secondary teachers included tainted candidates barred by the Supreme Court from participating in the fresh selection process.
The apex court had earlier this year prohibited 1,806 candidates, identified as “tainted” in the 2016 recruitment scam, from taking part in the new round of appointments for government-aided schools.
The next hearing is scheduled for December 2.
Moving the petition, senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya pointed to four candidates. “Nisith Burman, Deblina Jana, Joynal Abedin and Soma Das appeared on the tainted list. They are also among the 20,000-odd applicants called for interviews,” he told the court.
For the SSC, advocate Kalyan Bandyopadhyay argued that Nisith and Soma had been invited for interviews because they are differently abled.
Citing the apex court’s ruling, he said that differently abled teachers among the 17,206 terminated recruits could continue in service with salary until the fresh hiring process concluded, and could also participate in the next process with age relaxation and other concessions if required.
Bandyopadhyay said that the spellings of Deblina and Joynal, as mentioned in the petition, did not match those on the tainted list.
On April 3, a division bench headed by then Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna had scrapped the entire 2016 SSC recruitment, calling it “vitiated” and “tainted beyond redemption”. In a follow-up order on April 17, the court classified the terminated candidates into two groups: 15,403 “untainted” who could sit for the fresh tests to retain their posts, and 1,806 “tainted” who were barred from participation.
Following the Supreme Court’s directions, the SSC conducted fresh recruitment tests on September 7 and 14. Results for higher secondary-level teacher selection were released on November 7, and the preliminary interview list was published on November 15.
The list was based on written test scores (60 marks), academic qualifications (10 marks) and teaching experience (10 marks. The petitioners argued that despite this process, four disqualified candidates had found their way back onto the list.
Bhattacharyya demanded that the SSC place on record the full list of tainted candidates, complete with addresses and identifying details. In response, Bandyopadhyay said the commission had “no problem” publishing or submitting the list since it had already been provided to the Supreme Court. In late August, the apex court had instructed the SSC to publish the names of the tainted candidates.
After hearing both sides, Justice Sinha observed: “The commission appears to have wrongly interpreted the Supreme Court’s order pertaining to differently abled candidates.”
She directed the SSC to reassess the cases of Nisith and Soma after “clearly understanding” the order.
“Since there has been confusion, the SSC is directed to publish the list of tainted candidates on its website along with the details of the candidates,” Justice Sinha said.