Steps to recover salaries paid to “tainted” teaching and non-teaching staff appointed through a “vitiated” recruitment process were initiated after a case was filed in the Supreme Court alleging non-compliance with its order, sources in the education department said.
The case, filed by a section of candidates who were waitlisted but not recruited in 2016, was heard by the Supreme Court on Wednesday. The petition alleged that the education department had failed to implement an April 3, 2025 order of the apex court directing recovery of salaries paid to candidates whose appointments were later found to be illegal.
According to sources, the education department issued an order on December 31, 2025, announcing steps to recover the salaries so that the Supreme Court could be informed that its directions were being complied with.
An affidavit submitted by the education department before the Supreme Court on Wednesday stated: “It is respectfully submitted that in compliance with Supreme Court judgment (Para 45), the district magistrates across Bengal have been communicated to recover the salaries from the tainted candidates.... The district magistrates have been told to coordinate with the district inspector of schools in the concerned district for the said purpose.”
The affidavit added: “Thus, there has been compliance by the Answering Respondents with respect to said directions of the Supreme Court. Copy of the communication dated 31.12.2025 addressed by the school education department to the district magistrates has been annexed hereto.”
The lawyer who filed the petition alleging non-compliance questioned the timing of the December 31 order, arguing that it was issued only to avoid contempt proceedings.
“The Supreme Court passed its order on April 3 (last year). The education department did not take any action after that. The moment we filed a case and a hearing was scheduled on January 28, they put out an order (on December 31) to create the impression that the April 3 directions were being followed. This is an eyewash,” said advocate Sudipto Dasgupta.
The matter, being heard by a bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Kumar, will come up for its next hearing on March 25.
Petitioner
Sources in the education department said the main petitioner before the Supreme Court was among those whose allegations of corruption in school recruitments had led to the termination of 25,752 teaching and non-teaching jobs in the state. The petitioner herself also figures on the list of “tainted” candidates published by the school service commission (SSC) on January 15, they said.
According to that list, petitioner Laxmi Tunga of Nandigram in East Midnapore district is among 1,853 non-teaching job aspirants who were waitlisted but not appointed and were found guilty of “OMR mismatch” during the CBI investigation.
An OMR mismatch refers to discrepancies indicating that the optical mark recognition sheets of these candidates were tampered with, raising suspicion that their scores may have been fraudulently inflated.
The name of the petitioner appears on the list of tainted waitlisted candidates that the Supreme Court had directed the SSC to publish, commission chairperson Siddhartha Majumdar had told this newspaper in mid-January.
“We are committed to complying with the Supreme Court order of April 3, 2025. However, it must be remembered that the main petitioner in this case is Laxmi Tunga, who herself is a tainted candidate,” an education department official said.
Advocate Dasgupta countered this, stating that Tunga was only one of the petitioners. “She was never appointed and therefore does not
fall under the scope of the order mandating recovery of salaries. Besides, if a tainted candidate who was not appointed demands recovery, it only strengthens the case,” he said.
In its affidavit, the education department also informed the Supreme Court that 1,806 tainted teachers who were dismissed earlier have been barred from participating in the fresh recruitment process currently underway.
Even if any of them clear the initial stages, the SSC will remove them at subsequent levels of scrutiny, the affidavit said.
Additionally, the 3,512 tainted non-teaching staff in Group C and Group D categories will not be allowed to participate in the selection tests scheduled to be held on March 1 and March 8.