WBSSC Job Notification Case: Bengal Govt Challenges Court Order over Teacher Recruitment Test Row

The West Bengal government and the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) have approached the Calcutta High Court against a recent order that barred "tainted" teachers from taking part in a new recruitment test.

On Monday, a single bench of the Calcutta High Court had ruled that teachers who were illegally appointed from the 2016 recruitment panel — and are clearly identified — cannot appear for the fresh recruitment exam for government school jobs. In response, both the state government and the WBSSC filed a petition on Tuesday asking a division bench to review that decision.

Background of the Case:

In April 2024, the Supreme Court cancelled the appointment of 25,752 school teachers and non-teaching staff (Group C & D) hired through the 2016 recruitment.

Later, on April 17, the apex court said that teachers who are not found to be involved in wrongdoing (non-tainted) can keep their jobs until December 31, 2025, but must clear a fresh recruitment test.

WBSSC released the notification for this test on May 30, but it didn’t clearly say that only non-tainted teachers are allowed to appear.

What Happened Next:

Some unemployed teachers filed a case, claiming the WBSSC was letting tainted candidates reappear. On Monday, Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya ordered that all applications from tainted candidates should be cancelled and they should not be allowed to write the new test.

The WBSSC argued that these teachers are being punished twice—first by losing their jobs, and now by being banned from reapplying. Senior lawyer and MP Kalyan Banerjee, representing WBSSC, said, "How many times can someone be penalised?" However, the judge did not accept this argument.

Petitioners Allege Violation of Rules:

Some candidates from the 2016 batch also accused WBSSC of changing the rules for the new test. They claimed that under the 2016 rules, there were no marks for ‘teaching experience’ and ‘classroom demonstration’, but WBSSC is now awarding 10 marks each for these. The petitioners say this is unfair and goes against the Supreme Court’s instruction to follow the original rules.

Since the single bench didn’t address this issue, the petitioners also approached a division bench on Tuesday.

Political Reaction:

Opposition leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury accused the ruling TMC government of helping tainted teachers. He alleged that the party first took bribes to give jobs and is now spending public money to defend corrupt appointments in court.

Corruption Probe Background:

The alleged scam first came to light in May 2022, when the Calcutta High Court ordered a CBI investigation into teacher and staff appointments between 2014 and 2021, when Partha Chatterjee was Education Minister. Many people reportedly paid ₹5–15 lakh in bribes to get jobs despite failing the exams.

The Enforcement Directorate also began its own probe and arrested Partha Chatterjee in July 2022. Charges have since been filed against him, former education board head Manik Bhattacharya, and 52 others in January 2025.