Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya, Calcutta High Court
Tainted Candidates Shall Not Be Permitted To Participate: Calcutta High Court Directs WBCSSC To Proceed With Selection Process For Assistant Teachers
|The petitioners claiming to be untainted candidates of the 1st State Level Selection Test, 2016 for Classes IX & X and XI & XII, had approached the Calcutta High Court.
The Calcutta High Court has asked the Authorities, including the West Bengal Central School Service Commission (WBCSSC), to proceed with the selection process of Assistant Teachers, which started vide a recruitment notification dated May 30, 2025. The High Court has, however, prohibited the participation of tainted candidates whose appointments were earlier declared fraudulent.
The petitioners claiming to be untainted candidates of the 1st State Level Selection Test, 2016 (1st SLST, 2016) for Classes IX & X and XI & XII, had approached the High Court challenging the West Bengal School Service Commission (Selection for Appointment to the Posts of Assistant Teachers for Upper Primary Level of Classes [except Work Education and Physical Education], Classes IX-X and Classes XI-XII) Rules, 2025 (Rules of 2025) and recruitment notification dated May 30, 2025 issued by the Secretary, West Bengal Central School Service Commission.
The Single Bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya directed, “In view of aforesaid discussion, respondent authorities including WBCSSC are directed to proceed with the selection process which started vide recruitment notification dated 30th May, 2025 but in the said selection process tainted candidates shall not be permitted to participate. If any tainted candidate has submitted application in order to offer his or her candidature pursuant to said recruitment notification dated 30th May, 2025 same stands cancelled.”
“While dealing with appointment of tainted candidates in paragraph 45 of the judgment dated 3rd April, 2025, it was categorically observed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court that their appointment was result of fraud, which amounts to cheating, based on which judgment of the Hon’ble Division Bench dated 22nd April, 2024 was not interfered with so far as tainted candidates are concerned. At the same time, while dealing with case of 20 untainted candidates, it was observed in paragraph 46 of the judgment dated 3rd April, 2025 that entire selection process was declared null and void due to irregularities which violated Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution”, it noted.
Advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya represented the Petitioner while AG Kishore Dutta represented the Respondents.
Arguments
It was the case of the petitioners that in terms of the judgment of the Division Bench dated April 22, 2024, and the subsequent judgment delivered by the Supreme Court on April 3, 2025, read with the order passed on April 17, 2025, in Civil Appeal which was taken out by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education vacancies earmarked for 1st SLST, 2016 were required to be filled up in terms of previous Recruitment Rules of 2016 which were applied for conducting 1st SLST, 2016 for Classes IX & X and XI & XII.
Reasoning
On bare perusal of the concluding part of the judgment dated April 3, 2025, the Bench noted that on finding egregious irregularities offending Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India entire selection process was set at naught resulting in the cancellation of the engagement of two categories of candidates, one category was termed as “tainted” and another was “untainted”.
It was further noticed that the untainted candidates were not required to refund their salary, which they received after their appointment, but such relief was not granted to the tainted candidates. The only common feature between tainted and untainted candidates was that the appointment of both categories of candidates was required to be declared null and void.
Referring to the judgments in question, the Bench stated that the recruiting authority cannot enhance the number of vacancies meant for 1st SLST, 2016 for Classes IX & X and XI & XII by clubbing subsequent vacancies. As per the Bench inclusion of vacancies which were meant for 1st SLST, 2016 for Classes IX & X and XI & XII was required. No embargo been imposed thereby preventing State authorities, including WBCSSC, from framing separate rules for filling up those vacancies.
“Fixation of minimum marks in a selection process which in the present case has been fixed as 50% instead of 45% which was prevalent in graduation and post graduation level is policy decision of the recruiting authority which ought not to be interfered with”, it said.
The Bench thus directed the respondent authorities including WBCSSC to proceed with the selection process, which started vide a recruitment notification dated May 30, 2025. The Bench also added, “...but in the said selection process tainted candidates shall not be permitted to participate. If any tainted candidate has submitted application in order to offer his or her candidature pursuant to said recruitment notification dated 30th May, 2025 same stands cancelled.”
The Bench disposed of the Petition by ordering, “It is also directed that time schedule which was fixed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court vide order dated 17th April, 2025 passed on Miscellaneous Application No. 709 of 2025 shall be strictly adhered to by the respondent authorities to bring the selection process into logical conclusion.”
Cause Title: Sanjoy Kumar Doloi & Anr. v. The State of West Bengal & Ors. (Case No.: W.P.A. 12505 of 2025)
Appearance
Petitioner: Advocates Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, Sudipta Dasgupta, Bikram Banerjee, Sondwip Sutradhar
Respondent: AG Kishore Dutta, Advocates Sirsanya Bandopadhyay, Biswabrta Basu Mallick, Supriyo Chattopadhyay, Vivekananda Bose, Debanjan Mandal, Sandip Dasgupta, Debayan Sen, Mahima Cholera, Niket Ojha, Akash Dutta, Sayantanee Bhattacharyya, Tapati Samanta, Soumen Chatterjee, K. M. Hossasin, Iti Dutta, Kalyan Kumar Banerjee, Biswaroop Bhattacharya, Rahul Singh, Koyeli Bhattacharyya, Bibek Dutta