SSC moves HC over staff on poll duty, flags risk to meeting teacher recruitment deadline
Telegraph | 26 March 2026
The school service commission (SSC) has filed a petition in the high court, alleging that it is facing difficulties in conducting counselling, document verification and interviews for the teacher recruitment process as the Election Commission (EC) has engaged 26 of its employees in election-related duties.
SSC chairperson Siddhartha Majumdar said the commission was worried about the August 31 deadline set by the Supreme Court to complete the secondary and higher secondary teacher recruitment process.
“With our staff engaged by the Election Commission for poll-related assignments, exercises like counselling, document verification and interviews will get delayed,” the SSC chairperson said.
“In that case, how will the SSC comply with the fresh deadline?” he said.
Appearing for the commission, senior advocate Kalyan Bandyopadhyay said: “The commission has 35 staff altogether. If 26 of them are engaged by the EC, how will the SSC complete the recruitment process on time?”
“Besides, the SSC is an autonomous body. Can the Election Commission take away staff from an autonomous body for election purposes?” he said.
Justice Krishna Rao is likely to hear the petition on March 30.
On April 17, 2025, the apex court asked the SSC to complete the recruitment process by December 31.
The court extended the deadline till August 31, 2026, after the SSC appealed for an extension, citing a barrage of litigation that, the commission contended, was preventing compliance with the December 31 deadline.
Now the commission fears that the ECI’s decision could create fresh stumbling blocks.
An SSC official said they recently sent a letter to the district magistrate of North 24-Parganas, who is also the district election officer, requesting that SSC staff not be utilised for election duties.
“Still, we received a letter from the DM’s office on Thursday stating they have requisitioned 26 SSC officials for election purposes until further notice. Barring the peons, they have engaged all the staff who are needed for document verification, counselling and interviews,” the official said.
“There is a big shortage of polling personnel in the district. However, the commission can send an application so that we may examine it,” said DM Shilpa Gourisaria in a text message.
Calls and text messages to Manoj Kumar Agarawal, the chief electoral officer, went unanswered.
An education department official said that while seeking an extension till August 31, 2026, the commission told the Supreme Court that they wanted to complete the recruitment of 12,445 candidates at the higher secondary level by March 31.
According to that plan, the final counselling before the appointment of 25,314 secondary-level (Classes IX and X) teachers is expected to begin in late March.
On Wednesday, a senior SSC official said that, though they are running behind schedule, they hope to complete the process by August 31.
“If the HC does not intervene, we are unlikely to meet the deadline,” a senior SSC official said.