SSC untainted ‘waitlisted’ candidates: SC stays HC’s age relaxation order

Kolkata: The Supreme Court (SC) of India on Monday reportedly stayed an order of the Calcutta High Court that had granted age relaxation to certain candidates in the School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment case.

The interim stay was passed by a Bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice K. Vinod Chandran, putting on hold the directive issued by the High Court (HC).

The HC had earlier ruled that untainted candidates who were not selected in the 2016 SSC recruitment process could be granted age relaxation in the fresh  recruitment drive.

The order was based on the SC’s observations in the case relating to the cancellation of over 25,000-odd teaching and non-teaching jobs, where the apex court had held that candidates not tainted by irregularities (“untainted”) should be allowed age relaxation and permitted to participate in the new selection process even if they had crossed the prescribed age limit.

Relying on this reasoning, a group of candidates who had not participated in the 2016 recruitment but faced no allegations of corruption approached the HC, seeking age relaxation to apply for Classes XI and XII teacher posts in the new recruitment process.

In its December 12 order, the HC noted that the SSC had not published a separate list of untainted candidates. It held that, until such a list was made available, candidates whose names did not appear in the “tainted” list could not be excluded from the recruitment process on age grounds.

Challenging this order, the matter was taken to the SC, which has now issued notices to all parties. The apex court has directed them to file affidavits and fixed the next hearing for March. Until then, the High Court’s order granting age relaxation will remain stayed.