WBSSC publishes lists of tainted candidates barred from fresh recruitment in schools

The West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) on Saturday (August 30, 2025) published lists of “tainted ineligible” candidates, who were recruited during the recruitment process carried out by the Commission in 2016.

While the List 1 contained 1,804 names with roll numbers of “tainted ineligible”, candidates, the List 2 contained the names of tainted candidates, who have applied for the ongoing recruitment process in the State-run schools and have been issued admit cards. The List 2 contained 1,020 names though there can be multiple applications by the same person, the Commission stated.

The publication of these lists comes after a Supreme Court Bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma came down heavily on the WBSSC and directed that “tainted and ineligible” candidates will not be able to appear for the recruitment process being carried by the Commission. The apex court also directed the Commission to publish a list of ‘”tainted” candidates.

The Supreme Court on April 3, 2025, upheld the Calcutta High Court’s order and annulled the appointment of nearly 26,000 jobs of teaching and non-teaching staff in West Bengal, by calling the 2016 recruitment process fraught with fraud and irregularities.

The entire panel was cancelled because the West Bengal government and the Commission have failed to segregate “tainted” candidates, whose appointments were made using illegal means, from those “untainted”.

After the publication of the official list of “tainted” candidates, the “untainted” teachers, who lost their appointment and have hit the streets demanding that their jobs should not be annulled, said that the move is too little too late.

“We have been demanding this segregated list for the last one and half years. Now that the re-examination is knocking on our doors, they finally published it. We have only one question to the State and to the judiciary — now that it has been proven who were the tainted candidates, why are the innocent, untainted candidates still being put through a fresh selection process?” said Chinmoy Mondal, a member of the Jogyo Shikhhok Shikkhika Adhikar Mancha, a forum for untainted teachers.

The WBSSC has to recruit fresh teachers by the end of the year as per the apex court order and the recruitment exams are scheduled to be held on September 7.

Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari said that if the list has 1,804 names of “tainted” candidates it was a “bogus and incomplete list”. He said that when the entire panel of recruitment made in 2016 was set aside by the Calcutta High Court and the number of tainted candidates was several times higher, close to 6,000. “The Trinamool Congress government is toying with the list but they will have to come clean before the Supreme Court,” Mr. Adhikari said.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said that the publication of a list of “tainted” candidates by West Bengal School Service Commission is a culmination of how Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has destroyed the State’s education system.

While the chairperson of WBSSC refrained from any comments, West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu said that the government will abide by the instructions of the Supreme Court.

Judicial custody of TMC MLA, arrested for alleged recruitment scam, extended till September 12

In a related development, a court in Kolkata sent Trinamool Congress MLA Jiban Krishna Saha, who was arrested on August 25 by Enforcement Directorate (ED), to judicial custody till September 12.

He was arrested for alleged irregularities in a recruitment scam. The MLA was earlier arrested by CBI on similar charges in April 2023 and was out on bail.

Meanwhile, the West Bengal government issued a notification on Friday (August 29, 2025) for the fresh recruitments of non-teaching Group C and Group D staff.