Bengal school job case: Notification for fresh recruitment, publication of tainted candidates today

Kolkata, Nov 3 (IANS) The notification for fresh recruitment of non-teaching staff for state-run schools in West Bengal will be issued on Monday to fill vacancies following the Supreme Court's cancellation of 25,753 school jobs earlier this year.

At the same time, on Monday, the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) will also publish the list of “tainted” candidates who paid money to get school jobs in the 2016 panel, and, hence, will not be able to participate in the fresh recruitment process.

The recruitment will be for 2,989 non-teaching staff in the Group-C category and 5,488 non-teaching staff in the Group-Da category.

Earlier this year, when a division bench of the Supreme Court cancelled the entire 2016 panel of 25,753 school jobs, those losing jobs included both teaching and non-teaching staff. The written examinations for the teaching staff for secondary and higher-secondary sections have already been completed, and their results are expected any day now.

Now, on Monday, the state government will issue a notification for fresh recruitment of non-teaching staff and will also publish the list of tainted candidates.

Incidentally, on April 3, when the division bench of the Supreme Court cancelled the entire 2016 panel, it allowed the “untainted” teachers to attend classes till December this year, by when the recruitment process for the teaching staff would be completed.

However, the apex court did not give the same relaxation to the non-teaching staff, whether “tainted” or “untainted”. After that, the West Bengal government decided to give an allowance of Rs 25,000 per month to unemployed Group C workers and Rs 20,000 per month to Group D workers. In the wake of a case, the Calcutta High Court stayed that decision.

In April, the apex court upheld an order of the Calcutta High Court, cancelling WBSSC’s entire panel for 2016. The apex court also accepted the High Court’s observation that the entire panel for 2016 was cancelled because at that point in time, neither WBSSC nor the State Education Department was able to furnish two separate lists segregating “tainted” and “untainted” candidates, despite the court seeking these two lists repeatedly.

--IANS

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