The state government’s lawyers told Calcutta High Court on Wednesday that the school service commission (SSC) had the prerogative to decide at what stage of screening teacher job aspirants it would award marks for teaching experience.

The state’s advocate-general, Kishore Datta, and senior advocate Kalyan Bandyopadhyay represented the commission during the hearing of a petition seeking an order asking the SSC to state whether an extra 10 marks set aside for in-service teachers who appeared for the fresh tests held in September would be awarded before the interview or before the publication of the final merit lists.

The commission said it had already decided to award an extra 10 marks before drawing a list of candidates to be called for interviews from among those who wrote the written selection tests.

Representing the petitioner, advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya argued before Justice Amrita Sinha that the recruitment rules mandated that the commission could award 10 marks after the interview process.

Justice Sinha fixed the next date of hearing on November 28.

She also reiterated that the recruitment process would be subject to the outcome of the petition.

The petition was first heard on November 7, when the commission published the results of the selection tests held on September 14 to shortlist candidates for the appointment of 12,514 teachers at the higher secondary level of government-aided schools.

On September 7, the commission held a selection test to shortlist candidates for teacher jobs at the secondary level, but those results have yet to be published.

The commission has decided that the candidates will be called for interviews based on their marks in the September 14 written test (60 marks), academic qualification (10 marks) based on the performance at the postgraduate level examinations and teaching experience (10 marks).

Then the candidates will face a personal interview (10 marks) and give lecture demonstrations (10 marks).

The list of the successful candidates will be published based on their performance in the 100-mark screening.

Bengal advocate-general Datta said that during the hearing on Wednesday: “It is for the commission to decide at what stage it would award 10 marks as part of the prior teaching experience....”

Bhattacharyya argued: “If the commission decides to award 10 marks for prior teaching experience before the interview, it will violate the recruitment rules set by the commission.”

An education department official alleged that the petition had been filed “to disrupt the recruitment process” taking place after nine years.

“Earlier cases had been filed over the legitimacy of awarding 10 marks. Both Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court rejected those petitions. Now, a petition has been filed challenging the commission’s decision to award marks before finalising the list of interviewees. This is a plot to disrupt the recruitment process,” the official said.