Kolkata, 1 December (H.S.): A fresh petition was filed in the Calcutta High Court on Monday challenging the new recruitment process for Group-C and Group-D non-teaching posts in state-run schools. These vacancies arose after the Supreme Court, in April this year, cancelled the entire 2016 appointment panel prepared by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).

Justice Amrita Sinha’s single bench admitted the petition and fixed the matter for urgent hearing on Tuesday, as Wednesday is the last day for submitting applications for the posts.

The petitioners alleged major discrepancies in the state’s classification of “clean” and “tainted” candidates from the 2016 panel. They claimed that several non-teaching staffers whose involvement in securing jobs through bribes had been established were placed in the “clean” category, while many genuinely eligible candidates were wrongly excluded from it.

Under the Supreme Court’s April order, only those categorised as “clean” are eligible to participate in the new recruitment process. Those marked “tainted” have been barred.

Meanwhile on Monday, a bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi dismissed a review petition seeking reconsideration of the April verdict. The earlier order had invalidated around 26,000 appointments after the state’s Education Department and WBSSC failed to provide consistent lists of “tainted” and “clean” candidates.

Several matters related to the teaching recruitment scam are already pending before the High Court, and the fresh challenge has now extended the dispute to non-teaching appointments as well.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh