West Bengal school jobs case: State education dept questions maintainability of contempt petition before Calcutta HC

At a Calcutta High Court hearing of a contempt petition pertaining to the Supreme Court order on the West Begnal SSC judgment, the West Bengal Education Department on April 23 questioned before the Calcutta High Court the maintainability of the petition that claimed non-compliance of its order regarding 26,000 school jobs in the state.

The petitioners argued that the Education Department has not made available the OMR sheets for the 26,000 teaching and non-teaching positions that were affected by a Supreme Court ruling, which upheld the high court's decree with certain adjustments.

During the proceedings, the education department's attorney addressed a division bench of justices Debangsu Basak and Md Shabbar Rashidi, asserting that due to the Supreme Court's alterations to some of the high court's directives, any contempt petition should be directed to the Supreme Court itself.


Similarly, the legal representative for the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) also contested the legitimacy of bringing the contempt application before the high court based on the same rationale.

On the other hand, the lawyer for the petitioners contended that it is indeed permissible to file a contempt petition in the high court since the Supreme Court's modifications did not significantly change the instructions initially set by the high court.

The court has scheduled another hearing for the matter on the upcoming Monday.

The petitioners expressed their grievances regarding the breach of the ruling issued by the high court on April 22, 2024, which was subsequently modified by the Supreme Court on April 3 and April 17 of this year. They filed the contempt petition in response to the claim that the OMR sheets stored on three hard disks have not been uploaded to the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) website "forthwith," as mandated by the division bench's order for public access.