A group of terminated school teachers moved the high court on Monday, challenging the School Service Commission (SSC)’s decision to publish a list of “tainted” candidates.
The teachers approached Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya seeking permission to contest the SSC’s action, which the court granted. The case is likely to be heard on September 2, just five days before new selection tests begin.
In April 2024, a Calcutta High Court division bench terminated 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff following irregularities in the 2016 recruitment process. The Supreme Court upheld this decision on April 3 this year, describing the entire recruitment process as “vitiated”.
On August 28, the Supreme Court recorded an undertaking from the SSC to upload within seven days a list of “tainted” teachers who had lost their jobs. The commission published this list of 1,806 candidates on August 30.
Representing the petitioners, advocate Anindya Lahiri argued in the Calcutta High Court on Monday that the original high court order of April 22, 2024, terminating the jobs contained no directive to publish any list of tainted teachers.
“The Supreme Court upheld the Calcutta High Court division bench order, but that order said nothing about publishing any list of tainted teachers. This goes against the high court order,” Lahiri said.
The petitioners want these teachers to be allowed to write the selection tests scheduled for September 7 and 14, which will appoint assistant teachers at secondary and higher secondary levels in government-aided schools.
The “tainted” list includes relatives of leaders from both major political parties. Among those named are:
Trinamool Congress connections:
- Roshnara Begum, daughter of Chopra MLA Hamidul Rahaman
- Ankita Adhikari, daughter of former minister Paresh Adhikari
- Shampa Ghosh, daughter-in-law of TMC chief whipNirmal Ghosh
- Kuheli Ghosh, councillor of Rajpur-Sonarpur municipality
BJP connections:
- Wife of a BJP treasurer in Birbhum district
- Wife of a BJP leader in East Midnapore who switched from Trinamool
An SSC official defended their actions, stating they acted according to court directives.
“The Supreme Court wanted us to ensure that the tainted candidates did not appear in the fresh selection tests. We have acted accordingly,” the official said.
The commission’s Saturday notice stated the list was uploaded “in compliance of (sic) the order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court dated 28.08.2025.”
Senior advocate Kalyan Bandyopadhyay, appearing for the SSC, gave the undertaking when the Supreme Court bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma was hearing a special leave petition filed by Bejoy Biswas and other candidates who argued that the “tainted” teachers should be barred from the fresh recruitment process.
Among the 1,806 listed candidates, 1,020 have had their admit cards rejected for the fresh selection tests after attempting to apply despite being classified as “tainted.”
In a separate matter on Monday, Justice Tirthankar Ghose allowed Suman Biswas, a terminated but “untainted” teacher, to submit a memorandum to the SSC. Biswas demanded that untainted teachers be exempted from writing selection tests to retain their jobs, now that the commission has identified those who are tainted.
The court barred Biswas from leading a march to the SSC office.