Cash-for-jobs case: SSC publishes list of ‘tainted’ candidates after SC order

The School Service Commission (SSC) on Saturday released the names of 1,804 ineligible candidates linked to the cash-for-jobs scam, complying with an earlier directive from the Supreme Court.

According to an official memo, the list, published by the commission, includes the roll numbers, serial numbers, and names of the candidates who were declared ineligible.

The apex court had earlier ordered the SSC to make public the details of ‘tainted’ candidates whose recruitment had been found irregular.


The move comes just weeks after the top court, on August 19, said that former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee could be released on bail in the same case being probed by the CBI, but only after the trial court records statements of material witnesses within two months.

Alongside Chatterjee’s bail directive, the apex court also granted bail to Subiresh Bhattacharya and Shantiprasad Sinha, both of whom held senior positions in state education bodies during the period of the alleged recruitment irregularities.

The bench further directed that charges against public servants be framed within four weeks in cases where prosecution sanction has been accorded under the Prevention of Corruption Act, while charges for IPC offences alone would apply where sanction is pending.

The cash-for-jobs scandal, one of Bengal’s most high-profile recruitment controversies, allegedly took place when Chatterjee was education minister. Arrested in 2022, he was later dropped from the state Cabinet and suspended from the Trinamool Congress.

The CBI has alleged that he masterminded manipulations in the recruitment process, while the Calcutta High Court had rejected his bail plea in December 2024, prompting his appeal to the Supreme Court.