The high court on Thursday ordered that teaching job aspirants found
tainted by the Supreme Court cannot apply for the fresh selection tests being conducted by the school service commission (SSC).

A division bench struck down petitions filed by the state government and the SSC, which had sought that these candidates be allowed to participate in the ongoing selection process.

The bench of Justices Soumen Sen and Smita Das upheld a single bench order that on Monday restrained the SSC from allowing tainted candidates to take the fresh recruitment test, while hearing petitions seeking to stall them.

The state government and the SSC had challenged the order of Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya before the division bench on Tuesday.

“The tainted candidates cannot be allowed to write the selection tests, considering what the Supreme Court said in its April 3 order. The state government and the SSC are not in a position to argue in favour of the tainted candidates,” Justice Sen said.

In its April 3 order, the apex court terminated the jobs of 25,753 school staff, saying the entire selection process was vitiated beyond redemption.

“The disabled (physically) candidates mentioned in the previous paragraph will be allowed to participate in the fresh selection process... Similarly, other candidates who are not specifically tainted will also be eligible to participate, with appropriate age relaxation,” the court had said.

Lawyer Sudipta Dasgupta, appearing for the petitioners, told Metro: “We cited this part of the April 3 order. We argued that the commission was allowing tainted candidates — appointed through OMR manipulation, expired panels and other irregularities — to apply and write the tests despite the April 3 order.”

“We told the court that while the tainted candidates themselves weren’t seeking to write the tests, the state and SSC were arguing on their behalf,” Dasgupta said.

On Wednesday, Justice Sen asked SSC’s counsel why he was arguing for tainted candidates.

Advocate Kalyan Bandyopadhyay, appearing for the SSC, had argued on Wednesday: “The Supreme Court revoked their appointments on April 3. However, it didn’t explicitly bar them from participating in the new selection process.”

Bandyopadhyay added: “The SSC rules don’t have any provision to cancel applications of candidates with valid documents.”

The SSC started receiving applications on June 16. The process will end on July 14.

With the division bench upholding Justice Bhattacharyya’s order, the SSC must now reject applications received from tainted candidates.

Old practice plea

Another petition, where teaching job aspirants sought that the SSC appoint teachers under the 2016 rules instead of the rules drafted on May 30, 2025, was also heard on Thursday. The division bench will deliver its order on July 14.