Bengal school job case: Crucial hearing in Calcutta HC today on irregularities in new recruitment
Kolkata: A single-judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha of the Calcutta High Court will hear a crucial case involving alleged and significant irregularities in the new recruitment of higher secondary teachers in West Bengal government schools.
During the hearing on Monday, the state government is expected to explain to the court the basis on which the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) selected “unblemished” teachers from the commission’s 2016 panel who would be considered eligible to participate in this year’s recruitment of new secondary and higher secondary teachers.
During the previous hearing of the case on November 28, Justice Sinha questioned the basis for selecting “unblemished” teachers from the 2016 panel and sought clarification from the state government and the commission.
Justice Sinha also raised the crucial question of how the WBSSC determines which candidates will be eligible for the 10-mark weightage criterion for previous teaching experience.
He also stated that, clearly, it appeared that many qualified candidates were excluded from the recruitment process due to the new hiring rules.
This new recruitment is being conducted to fill vacant teaching positions in government schools, as a division bench of the Supreme Court in April this year cancelled the entire 2016 WBSSC panel for approximately 26,000 school jobs and ordered that “clean” teachers would be allowed to participate in the new recruitment process in 2025, but under no circumstances should “tainted” teachers, who are suspected of having paid money to obtain teaching jobs, be allowed to participate in the new recruitment process.
Accordingly, in September this year, the WBSSC conducted separate written examinations for the new recruitment of secondary and higher secondary teachers, and recently, the results of both written examinations were declared.
However, after the list of candidates qualifying for interviews for higher secondary teacher recruitment was published, a petition was filed before Justice Sinha’s single-judge bench, alleging that some “tainted” teachers from the 2016 panel had qualified for the interviews.
The petitioner alleged that this was a clear violation of the Supreme Court’s April order barring “tainted” teachers from participating in the new recruitment process.
