The Calcutta High Court on Monday instructed the School Service Commission (SSC) to conduct the fresh recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff excluding those who were identified as “underserving” and “tainted” during the investigation into the cash-for-jobs scam.

Despite the arguments made by the SSC’s counsel Kalyan Bandyopadhyay, Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya ruled the application of any tainted candidates from the 2016 panel will have to be rejected.

The high court made it clear those who were identified having used unfair means to secure jobs in government-run and government-aided schools will not be allowed to participate in the recruitment process.

In April, a division bench of the Supreme Court upheld the Calcutta High Court verdict from last year which cancelled the employment of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff government schools in Bengal and described the entire recruitment process as “vitiated”.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had announced 44,203 vacancies would be filled up in the fresh recruitment process, which the Supreme Court has ordered must be completed before December 31, 2025.

Multiple cases were filed with the Calcutta High Court after the SSC issued advertisements for the recruitment process.

Arguing on behalf of the SSC, Bandyopadhyay, the Trinamool’s Serampore MP said, the Supreme Court did not single out the tainted candidates to be left out of the recruitment process.

Dismissing the entire panel from 2016 who had “qualified” in the 2016 state level selection test, the SC bench comprising then CJI Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar had said, “In our opinion, this case is where the entire selection process has been vitiated. Manipulation and fraud on a large scale, coupled with the intention to cover up have tainted the selection process beyond repair.”

In his order then CJI Khanna said, “The legibility and credibility of the selection procedure are denuded. We find no reason to interfere in the HC verdict, since the appointments are by fraud and we see no reason to interfere.”

About the tainted candidates, the apex court had said: “For candidates who have been specifically found to be tainted, their entire selection process has been rightly declared null and void due to egregious violations and illegalities which violate Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution. As such the appointment of these candidates is cancelled.”

Senior advocate Bikash Bhattacharya, who is also a CPM Rajya Sabha MP, and advocate Anindya Mitra appearing on behalf of the “deserving candidates” said the apex court had clearly mentioned the tainted candidates cannot participate in the recruitment process.

“The SSC did not clarify who are qualified to appear for the exams, which was in violation of the SC’s order. If SSC wants to award those who bought their jobs they can do so,” Mitra said.

The former Chief Justice of India Sanjeev Khanna had clearly stated that the dismissed Group-C and Group-D staff cannot be allowed to continue in their present employment as “the number of established tainted candidates is substantially high in number.”