Bengal’s school education department has initiated steps to recover salaries paid to “tainted” teaching and non-teaching staff who were appointed through a “vitiated” recruitment process.

The department has written to district magistrates across the state, asking them to take “expeditious steps to realise the amount of salaries/payments from the relevant candidates appointed under SLST/RLST-2017”. In Calcutta, the recovery process has been set in motion by Samagra Shiksha Mission, a wing of the department.

A department order states that “the list of all such candidates has been published on the website of the school service commission (SSC)”.

The SSC had uploaded a list of 1,809 “tainted” teachers last year, following directions from Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court, to prevent them from participating in the state-level selection test held in 2024.

Recently, the SSC published a list of 3,512 non-teaching school staff members (Group C and D) to bar them from appearing in the fresh regional level selection test scheduled for March.

The education department has also informed the Supreme Court about the steps being taken to recover the salaries already paid to these candidates.

The department’s order refers to paragraph 45 of the Supreme Court’s April 3, 2025 judgment, which led to the termination of 25,752 teaching and non-teaching jobs. The apex court had held that the recruitment process was “tainted beyond redemption”.

The paragraph reads: “We find no valid ground or reason to interfere with the direction of the Calcutta High Court that the services of tainted candidates, where appointed, must be terminated, and they should be required to refund any salary/payments received... Since their appointments were the result of the fraud, this amounts to cheating. Therefore, we see no justification to alter this direction.”

Although 17,209 teachers were initially dismissed, the SSC later determined that 1,809 of them were actually tainted, following a subsequent Supreme Court order dated April 17, 2025. Similarly, of the 8,544 Group C and Group D staff whose services were terminated, 3,512 were identified as tainted.

District magistrates have been instructed to write to district inspectors of schools to ascertain the names and residential addresses of the candidates concerned and initiate recovery proceedings under the provisions of the Bengal Public Demands Recovery Act, 1913, an education department official said.

The Act is a specialised law that enables the state to recover outstanding public dues.

In May 2025, the state government had sought a review of the Supreme Court’s direction requiring tainted candidates to refund their salaries. Arguing for a “humane view”, the government contended that the employees had rendered services and should not be made to work without compensation.

The Supreme Court, however, rejected the plea.