Cal HC directs SSC to publish OMR sheets of 2nd SLST

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed the West Bengal Central School Service Commission (WBCSSC) to upload the OMR sheets of all candidates who appeared for the second School Level Selection Test (SLST), observing that placing them in the public domain would help “rule out any illegality” in the recruitment process.

The direction came while the court was hearing a batch of petitions challenging various aspects of the second SLST, which was conducted on September 7 and 14, 2025, after the Supreme Court cancelled the entire 2016 panel.

Among the multiple prayers placed before the court were demands to classify candidates appointed after the expiry of the 2016 SLST panel as “tainted” and to make the OMR sheets of the recent examination publicly accessible. The Commission was also asked to submit the list of candidates who received appointments after the 2016 panel lapsed. According to submissions made in court, the panel for classes IX–X expired on November 27, 2018, while the panel for classes XI–XII ceased on March 12, 2019.

Appearing for the Commission, senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee told the court that every candidate had already been provided a copy of their own OMR sheet. He added that the Supreme Court has fixed December 31 as the deadline for completing the recruitment process and suggested that the matter could be considered in that context. Justice Amrita Sinha, however, stressed that transparency must be ensured “from step one” since the ongoing recruitment is being conducted in compliance with the Supreme Court’s directions. She then instructed the Commission to upload all OMR sheets in the public domain to eliminate doubts over procedural fairness.

Counsel for the petitioners argued that although names of candidates with OMR mismatches were published, the list of “tainted” candidates did not include those appointed after the panel’s expiry.

Advocate General Kishore Datta submitted that the Supreme Court had categorised rank-jumping, out-of-panel appointments and OMR mismatches as grounds for taint, and noted that with a fixed timeline in place, more such petitions were likely. He urged the court to allow the recruitment process to continue while these issues are taken up subsequently.