The high court on Monday issued an order restraining the school service commission (SSC) from allowing candidates identified by the Supreme Court as “tainted” to appear for the upcoming selection test to appoint teachers.

Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya asked the commission not to receive any online applications from candidates who have been identified as tainted by the apex court on April 3 while terminating the appointments of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching school staff.

“As per the Supreme Court’s direction, the tainted candidates would not be allowed to appear in the test. The SSC will have to cancel the applications of the tainted candidates. Tainted candidates cannot be allowed to write the test, “ the judge said.

The court also directed the commission to cancel the applications from such candidates it might have received by July 7. The submission of application forms started on June 16 and is scheduled to continue till July 14.

Justice Bhattacharyya was hearing a batch of petitions in which the petitioners alleged that the commission’s May 30 recruitment notification did not explicitly mention that “tainted” candidates would not be allowed to write the test, tentatively slated for September this year.

On July 1, the high court directed the SSC and the state government to send their response by Monday.

Lawyer Sudipta Dasgupta, appearing for the petitioners, quoted paragraph
49 of the Supreme Court’s April 3 order, which specified that the tainted candidates cannot be allowed to write the tests.

“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. In our opinion, such a direction would be fair and just, as it would allow these candidates to take part in the fresh selection process, which should now be initiated to fill the vacancies,” the paragraph says.

The commission was allowing the tainted candidates who were appointed through OMR manipulation, after the expiry of the panel and through other forms of irregularities, to apply and write the tests despite what was said in the April 3 order, said Dasgupta.

“The court found merit in our argument,” Dasgupta told Metro.

Kalyan Bandyopadhyay, representing the state government, said the April 3 order did not explicitly say that the tainted candidates cannot write the tests.

“The Supreme Court has terminated their appointments. However, it was not explicitly said that they would not be allowed to participate in the selection process. If they are not even allowed to participate in the fresh selection process, it will be like subjecting them to double punishment. How can it be said that the tainted candidates cannot participate in the recruitment process?” said Bandyopadhyay.

Justice Bhattacharyya said: “How can the court consider their cases even after knowing that large-scale corruption had taken place in their appointments?”

Bandyopadhyay said the court did not accept the petitioners’ contention that the fresh recruitment exercise should not be held based on May 30 recruitment rules, which allow in-service teachers up to 10 marks based on their years of experience.

The petitioners said that teachers should be appointed based on the 2016 rules, which provided no advantages to in-service teachers.