SSC scam: High Court orders more teacher OMRs from 2016 recruitment released
Telegraph | 29 November 2025
The high court on Friday ordered the school service commission (SSC) to upload OMR sheets of candidates who secured teaching positions after the 2016 recruitment panel had expired — one of the key irregularities identified in a scandal that led to mass terminations.
The interim order came a day after the court asked the commission to publish by December 10 a list of all candidates appointed after the panel’s expiry.
In April this year, the Supreme Court terminated 17,209 teachers at secondary and higher secondary levels in government-aided schools due to a “vitiated” recruitment process. Despite the mass terminations, the court later described 15,403 of these teachers as “untainted”. These individuals are now participating in fresh selection tests to regain their positions, with the process required to conclude by December 31.
The allegation is that though the panel for secondary-level teachers had expired in March 2019 and in September 2020 for higher secondary teachers, some of them had been appointed from these panels.
Apart from hearing this case, Justice Sinha on Friday also heard a petition that challenges the commission’s decision to award up to 10 marks for teaching experience in the new recruitment process.
Senior advocate Bikash Bhattacharyya, representing the petitioners, argued that the additional marks disadvantage fresh teaching job aspirants. “The Supreme Court did not say that 10 marks should be awarded for this. This is discriminatory towards the fresh teaching job aspirants,” he told the court.
Bhattacharyya contended that teachers should be selected on a 90-mark scale to ensure a level playing field, noting that the Supreme Court never mandated the experience marks. “It must be remembered that the Supreme Court terminated the jobs because it could not ascertain who had been fairly recruited. The illegalities were so widespread,” he said. “Considering this, it would not be advisable to award 10 marks to those who had lost their jobs because of a vitiated recruitment process.”
Advocate-general Kishore Datta and senior advocate Kalyan Bandyopadhyay, representing the state government and the commission, will present their arguments at the next hearing on December 2.
The SSC’s authority to award experience marks has already been upheld once. On July 16, a Calcutta High Court division bench ruled that the commission has the authority to conduct teacher recruitment under its preferred rules.
The bench stated: “If the Government felt that the experience gained by the candidates is relevant, the court cannot take a different view in judicial review. The criteria laid down in the recruitment process of 2025 were intended to select the best of the candidates.”
The Supreme Court subsequently upheld this July 16 order on July 24.
The current marking system differs significantly from the 2016 process:
2016 breakdown (out of 100):
2025 breakdown (out of 100):
An education department official expressed frustration that fresh cases continue to be filed despite earlier court rulings.
“All these cases are being filed at a time when the SSC is verifying documents and conducting interviews to choose teachers from the candidates who cleared the fresh selection tests,” the official said, adding that such challenges could disrupt the recruitment timeline mandated by the Supreme Court.