Supreme Court directs SSC to publish list of ‘tainted’ candidates
Kolkata: The Supreme Court on Thursday reportedly directed the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) to publish on its website the list of “tainted” candidates who benefited from the cash-for-jobs scam.
“The high court had asked for the list of tainted candidates be published. We did not interfere in that order. Still the list has not been published,” a bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Satish Kumar Sharma observed, adding that the apex court was “keeping a watch” on the recruitment process and would intervene if necessary.
In April this year, the Supreme Court had upheld a Calcutta High Court verdict cancelling the appointments of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff recruited through the 2016 State Level Selection Test. The bench headed by then Chief Justice Sanjeev Khanna had held that the entire selection process was irreparably compromised. “Manipulation and fraud on a large scale, coupled with the intention to cover up, have tainted the selection process beyond repair,” the judgment said. The apex court ruled that candidates specifically found to be “tainted” faced cancellation of appointments due to “egregious violations and illegalities” that violated Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. It also asked the state government to reconstitute the appointment process and bar disqualified candidates from reapplying. A review petition filed by the Mamata Banerjee government against the verdict has already been dismissed.
The court on Thursday rejected requests by aspirants seeking a reschedule of fresh examinations, confirming the dates as September 7 and 14, with applications open until September 2 for eligible candidates. Earlier, a Calcutta High Court division bench had identified 17 types of irregularities in the recruitment process, describing the fraud as “deep and pervasive” and cancelling all appointments. Senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said the state government was unlikely to release the list despite the apex court’s seven-day deadline.
