West Bengal school recruitment scam: School Service Commission publishes list of ‘tainted’ non-teaching staff

The West Bengal School Service Commission on Monday (November 3, 2025) night published the list of 3500 ‘tainted’ candidates after the Supreme Court direction in August. They were among the 26,000 teaching and non-teaching staff who lost their jobs after a Supreme Court order on April 3 invalidated their jobs citing irregularities in their recruitment process. 

The 52-page list published by the WBSSC contained 3512 names of “tainted non-teaching staff candidates” from Group C and D. Soon after the list was published, ‘untainted’, non-teaching staff who have been left in the lurch for the past 8 months and have not received any salaries, making survival difficult, raised questions about why they are being punished even though no allegations of corruption have been proven against them. 

“There are almost 3000 of us who are untainted, what has the government done to protect our jobs? Now we have to take part in a fresh hiring process and compete with lakhs of other candidates to prove our worth, even though we already had jobs and passed these exams before,” Amit Mondal, a Group C employee from Dum Dum Bapuji Colony Adarsha Buniadi Vidya Mandir said. 

Earlier on August 30 and 31, WBSSC published two lists of ‘tainted’ teachers. A total of 2824 teachers were named in these lists. 

On April 17, the top court allowed the ‘untainted’ teachers to continue in their roles till December 31, 2025, till the fresh recruitment process is over. However, the same relaxation was not given to the non-teaching staff, causing financial trouble for them. 

In the meantime, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had promised an honorarium of ₹25,000 for Group C employees and ₹20,000 for Group D employees till the dispute got resolved in court. However, Justice Amrita Sinha of the Calcutta High Court questioned this move by the West Bengal Government and restrained them from giving any money. She questioned why candidates will be given money even though they have not been working. 

A fresh recruitment process for both teaching and non-teaching staff is in progress as per the Supreme Court order which had directed that the entire 2016 panel be cancelled and a fresh hiring process be completed by December 31.