The school service commission (SSC) will not allow 20-odd candidates to appear for Sunday’s selection test after they were found carrying mobile phones into their examination centres on March 1 — during a recruitment test for clerical posts in schools.

The commission has cancelled their examinations for the Group C (clerk) posts held that day and will also prevent them from sitting for the Group D (peon) recruitment test scheduled for March 8 in government-aided secondary and higher secondary schools.

Most of the 7.5 lakh candidates who took the March 1 test are also expected to appear for the March 8 exam.

“As these candidates entered their examination halls with mobile phones, a prohibited item, we do not want to let them take the test on Sunday. I will hold a discussion with the members of the commission and formally notify the bar in a day or two,” commission chairperson Siddhartha Majumdar said.

“Those who have attempted to cheat once cannot be allowed to take the test on Sunday,” he added.

Their admit cards will be revoked, said an SSC official.

The commission, apart from frisking the examinees with hand-held metal detectors, had barred candidates from wearing boots/shoes so they could not sneak in any device.

They were told to come wearing slippers or flat sandals. But a handful of the candidates evaded the security checks and entered with
mobiles, said the SSC chairperson.

At a centre in Jalpaiguri in North Bengal, a candidate who was caught with a mobile phone allegedly fled with a copy of the OMR sheet.

An FIR has been filed against the candidate by the centre-in-charge, said an SSC official.

On March 8, 8.09 lakh candidates are expected to write the selection test at 1,707 centres.

An SSC official said they have told those in charge of frisking to be more stringent about checks during the next exam.

“We have received reports that the frisking teams were late in reaching some centres on March 1. As the teams arrived late, they may not have carried out the frisking with due diligence, leading to candidates being able to smuggle in the mobile phones. This kind of laxity will not be repeated on March 8,” the official said.

A commission official said that before barring the candidates from writing the tests on Sunday, they were also taking legal opinion.

On February 16, the SSC uploaded a list of 544 “tainted” candidates whose admit cards were revoked to prevent them from appearing in the selection tests on March 1 and March 8 for non-teaching posts in government-aided schools.

Tainted means the OMR (optical mark recognition) sheets of these candidates were tampered with during the earlier round of recruitment held in 2016, suggesting their scores may have been fraudulently inflated or they had been appointed after jumping ranks.

The test on March 8 will be held to shortlist candidates for 5,488 Group D vacancies. The test will start at noon and will continue till 1.50pm.