The school service commission (SSC) has stated that if a tainted candidate slips through the recruitment process to appoint non-teaching school staff despite efforts, they will be “removed later”.

“The ongoing selection process for the appointment of teachers at the secondary and higher secondary levels of government-aided schools revealed that some tainted candidates wrote the tests and even appeared for interviews and made it to the merit panel. The names of those who slipped in had to be removed later before the start of the counselling process,” a commission official said.

“So we are exercising caution during the non-teaching staff recruitment process,” he added. “Candidates who slip through will be removed later,” he said.

Some of the tainted candidates wrote the selection tests held last September to shortlist candidates for the appointment of teachers.

Some of them even appeared in interviews and made it to the merit list published on January 21. Their names were removed before the counselling round began.

The commission’s notice states that the admit cards uploaded are only provisional and do not imply in any way that the SSC has accepted the candidate’s eligibility.

“Further eligibility checking will be conducted during physical/online verification at the appropriate time, right up to the counselling stage, if the candidate succeeds in reaching that stage,” the commission’s notice says.

Days before the tests for the appointment of Group C and Group D staff, the commission said that all the tainted candidates, “regardless of the teaching and non-teaching sectors” whose details have been uploaded on the commission’s website time to time, are barred from appearing in the tests scheduled on March 1 and March 8.

“Some of such tainted candidates have been identified, and admit cards have not been issued in their favour. However, pursuant to the direction of the Supreme Court and..., it is reiterated that should any tainted candidate slip in, they would be removed later,” says the notice signed by the SSC’s chairperson.

Metro reported earlier that the SSC has uploaded a “rejection list” of 256 candidates, stating they were barred from the test scheduled on March 1 for Group C (clerk) posts. It uploaded another “rejection list” of 288 candidates so they could not write the test scheduled on March 8 for Group D posts.