Bengal school job case: Written exam to face legal hurdle if ‘tainted’ candidate manages to appear

Kolkata, Sep 5 With the first phase of the written examination for fresh recruitment for teaching jobs in state-run schools in West Bengal to be conducted on Saturday, doubts galore over the possibilities that the process may hit legal hurdles, in case even a single “tainted” candidate manages to participate in the test.

The exam is being conducted to fill the vacant posts following the termination of 25,753 teaching staff by the Supreme Court earlier this year.

The apprehension has surfaced as doubts have been raised from several corners about the authenticity of the list of “tainted” candidates published by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) last week. These sections, including legal experts and central probe officials in the matter, doubt that the WBSSC list has been deliberately truncated, reportedly either to protect more such “tainted” candidates or to ensure that the final proceeds in the multi-crore cash-for-school-job case appear to be a much smaller amount than the actual proceeds figure.

As per the schedule, the written examination for the fresh recruitment will be conducted on September 7 and September 14.

“As of now, only the 1,806 candidates shown in the list of ‘tainted' candidates published by the commission last week will not be able to appear for the written examination for the fresh recruitment process, considering that they have already been identified as ‘tainted' by the commission. But, if by chance, if some or even if one of the candidates appearing for the written examination for the fresh recruitment process turns out to be tainted in the future, then the written examination is bound to confront fresh rounds of litigation,” a state education department official said on strict condition of anonymity.

Both the Supreme Court and the Calcutta High Court have taken strong stands against the appearance of the “tainted” candidates, identified as paying cash for jobs.

Recently, a group of “tainted “candidates, whose names appeared in the WBSSC list published last week, approached the Calcutta High Court for permission to appear for the written examination for the fresh recruitment process.

However, first a single-judge bench and then a division bench of the Calcutta High Court dismissed their petitions.

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