Why are tainted candidates being allowed despite Supreme Court order: Calcutta HC to Bengal govt

The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday asked the West Bengal government as to why the candidates, who were declared as "tainted" in the cash-for-jobs recruitment scam, were allowed to reapply under a fresh recruitment process notified by theWest Bengal School Service Commisison (WBSSC) on May 30 this year, despite the order being contrary to that of the Supreme Court. The single-judge bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharya also questioned the new notification weightage criteria. "Why are tainted candidates being permitted in spite of the directions by the Supreme Court? ...I can observe that there are loopholes in the notification, but the court is not interfering since leave is granted...you say why tainted candidates will be allowed to participate in view of specific observations by the SC," the court observed.

Justice Bhattacharya also questioned why WBSSC introduced new "weightage criteria" in the new notification, when the SC order stated that the rules for the new recruitment process should be the same as in 2016.

The written examination in the fresh recruitment will carry 60 marks instead of 55 in the 2016 panel, according to the new notification. The weightage criterion for educational qualification in the fresh recruitment process is just 10 as against 35 for the 2016 panel. On April 3 this year, the SC cancelled 25,753 school jobs in West Bengal, upholding a previous order by the Calcutta HC. The state government and WBSSC had already filed review petitions before the SC on this issue.


The candidates also questioned why the tainted candidates have been allowed to participate in the new recruitment process.