HC junks contempt petition in SSC recruitment case

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday dismissed the contempt petition relating to the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment scam case, reasoning that its previous order got merged with the recent Supreme Court judgement, rendering it unenforceable by the High Court.

The bench of Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi observed that following the High Court’s order and judgement on April 22, 2024, the apex court gave three orders against the HC decision, of which, the third one was the judgement on April 17, 2025. This final order which included compliance directives, indicated that the Supreme Court retained jurisdiction over enforcement, precluding High Court intervention.

The court observed that the doctrine of merger holds that an inferior court’s judgement ceases to exist when absorbed by a superior court’s decision, making the latter operative and enforceable. “A contempt petition is not maintainable before the High Court to implement an order which merged with the order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court,” the court said.

Legal experts said that the petitioners seeking the enforcement of the High Court directions, would need to approach the Supreme Court now with the contempt petition.

The petitioners had filed the contempt application broadly alleging that the High Court’s direction to upload OMR sheets on WBSSC website was not complied with and neither any steps were taken to recover money received as remuneration and benefits from the tainted candidates. They had argued that since the Supreme Court did not alter the entire High Court judgement, the latter has the jurisdiction to hear it. Both the Education department and the WBSSC had challenged the maintainability of the contempt petition, arguing that since the Supreme Court had modified some of the directions of the High Court, a contempt application can only be moved before the top court.