At least four Group C candidates who got zero based on the evaluation of their OMR sheets ended up with 57 or 56 in the results uploaded on the server of the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).
At least two candidates who got 1 based on the assessment of their OMR sheets were shown to have scored 54 in the results stored on the WBSSC’s server.
A notice issued by the commission on Monday revealed the glaring mismatch of marks between what the 785 Group C candidates actually got and what their results showed.
The 785 Group C candidates had been appointed in government-aided schools but their services were terminated last week following an order from the high court because of manipulation of marks.
Group C employees are lower division clerks.
The commission had last week uploaded the OMR sheets of over 3,000 candidates whose marks, the commission told Calcutta High Court, had been manipulated.
On Monday, the commission came up with details of the marks mismatch with respect to each of these candidates.
WBSSC chairperson Siddhartha Majumdar said that when the commission through an affidavit informed the court on Friday that they had recommended 785 candidates for appointment from among the candidates whose marks had been tampered with, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay ordered them to upload the difference of marks of 3,478 candidates.
According to Monday’s list, the marks of 3,030 candidates stored on the WBSSC’s server are more than the scores stored on the hard disc of the agency that was engaged by the commission to evaluate the OMR sheets.
“Among the 3,030 candidates were the 785 who had been recommended by the commission for appointment as Group C employees,” Majumdar said.
The list also says that the marks of 362 candidates stored on the WBSSC’s server are same as the scores uploaded on the hard disc of the agency.
“The marks of 86 candidates stored on the WBSSC server are less than what were stored on the hard disc of the agency,” said an WBSSC official.
These candidates had written the regional level selection test in 2016, when Subires Bhattacharyya, who was arrested by the CBI in September in connection with alleged illegal appointment of assistant teachers in government-aided schools, was chairperson of the commission.
Earlier this month, counsel for the WBSSC admitted in the court that the officials in charge of the commission in 2016 “might have tampered with the marks for appointing inefficient candidates in the vacant posts of Group C”.
Monday’s list has the name of each candidate along with the roll number, “published OMR marks (stored on the WBSSC’s server)”, “actual OMR marks (stored on the hard disc of the agency engaged to evaluate OMR)” and “difference of marks”.
Swapan Mandal, of the Bengal Teachers’ and Employees’ Association, said the huge mismatch of marks laid bare the “complete lack of transparency” in the recruitment process. “Those who got zero in the tests were recruited. The court must find out why,” said Mandal.
Partha Chatterjee, who was education minister when the recruitment test was held, is now in custody in connection with appointment-related irregularities.
