Calcutta HC directs SSC to publish fresh, detailed list of 1,806 tainted school job candidates

NEW DELHI: The Calcutta High Court has asked the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) to file a fresh report containing further details of 1,806 tainted candidates who are among the 25,753 school job appointees whose jobs were invalidated by a Supreme Court order in April last year. Taking on record a report filed by the SSC, Justice Amrita Sinha said that the list discloses the roll number, name, subject, name of the parent and the date of birth of candidates, but does not disclose the category for which the candidate was found to be tainted.

The details of the school and the district where the candidate was appointed in the first school-level selection test (SLST) of 2016 were also not disclosed, the court noted. Justice Sinha directed the SSC to publish the list disclosing all relevant details of the candidates by which they can be properly identified. The court directed that the matter will be taken up for hearing again on February 11.

Court flags risk in recruitment

Justice Sinha said that the court had in an order on November 19, 2025 clearly mentioned that the requirement of publication of the list of tainted candidates is for the purpose of identifying the candidates. "If proper and complete details of the candidates are not disclosed in the list published by the commission, then there are chances that tainted candidates may slip through the net and participate in the fresh recruitment process," Justice Sinha observed, while passing the order on Wednesday.

The lawyer representing the commission stated before the court that steps are being taken for publication of a further list. The SSC is holding a fresh recruitment process through the second SLST, 2025, for jobs in West Bengal government-run and -aided schools. Finding the recruitment process vitiated by irregularities, the Supreme Court had upheld a Calcutta High Court order invalidating the appointment of 25,753 candidates for teaching and non-teaching school jobs.