The Supreme Court has instructed Calcutta High Court to ensure that no “tainted” candidates are allowed to pass through in the new selections under any circumstances. Additionally, the high court has been directed to make the list of disqualified candidates publicly available along with relevant details.
The Supreme Court has mandated that “untainted” candidates must be protected, ensuring their interests are not adversely affected by the new rules following the mass cancellation of the 2016 school appointments.
A bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kumar and Alok Aradhe issued directions on Wednesday, sending numerous cases back to Calcutta High Court. These cases involve appeals, special leave petitions, and applications from candidates challenging the West Bengal government’s 2025 rules for teacher appointments in the state. The formal written order was uploaded on Thursday.
In April 2025, the Supreme Court cancelled the appointment of more than 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staff recruited in 2016 through a selection process which the court found to be “vitiated by manipulation and fraud”.
The judgment mandated a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the scandal. A fresh recruitment process began in May.
The Apex court had passed the judgment while dismissing the Bengal government’s appeal in “The State of West Bengal vs. Baishakhi Bhattacharyya (Chatterjee) and Ors”, challenging the high court’s judgment quashing the recruitment process and ordering a CBI probe.
Following is the operative portion of the official order issued on Wednesday and uploaded on Thursday:
“Learned counsel for the petitioner(s)/applicant(s) seek permission to withdraw these special leave petitions/applications, reserving liberty to approach the High Court for seeking redressal of their lawful grievances in accordance with law. Permission granted. The special leave petitions/applications are dismissed as withdrawn with the liberty afore stated.
We are informed that a writ petition, being W.P.A. 26288/2025, has been entertained by a learned Judge of the High Court at Calcutta, and various issues were flagged by the learned Judge in her orders dated 07.11.2025, 11.11.2025, 12.11.2025 and 19.11.2025 passed therein.
The matters on the file of this Court as on date were kept pending only for the purpose of verifying whether the directions of this Court in “The State of West Bengal vs. Baishakhi Bhattacharyya (Chatterjee) and Ors”. were implemented scrupulously. As a learned Judge of the Calcutta High Court has now taken up that issue also, we are of the opinion that it would be appropriate that the High Court, being the Court of the first instance, undertakes the exercise instead of this Court.
It would be open to all petitioners/applicants before this Court to approach the High Court for redressal of their lawful grievances in accordance with law.
The High Court shall, however, ensure that none of the tainted candidates are permitted to slip through in the fresh selections, be it on any pretext. The High Court shall also ensure that the list of tainted candidates is placed in the public domain with full details so as to ensure that this does not happen.
Learned counsel in some of the cases seek relief in terms of certain paragraphs of the decision in Baishakhi Bhattacharyya (Chatterjee) (supra). They are at liberty to raise such hermeneutic exercises before the High Court.
The special leave petitions/applications are disposed of in the afore stated terms.
The High Court shall examine the matters uninfluenced by any of the observations on merits made by this Court in the orders passed after the decisions in Baishakhi Bhattacharyya (Chatterjee) (supra).
The High Court shall also be mindful of the fact that the untainted candidates in the past selection were allowed to sit for the selection tests to be held afresh and their candidature cannot be adversely affected by application of the new Rules, that is, 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. Pending application(s), if any, shall stand disposed of.”