Tainted candidates can’t apply for school jobs, rules Calcutta HC | India News

KOLKATA: Candidates specified as tainted in the 2016 Bengal’s School Service Commission (SSC) panel (hirings) will not be allowed to participate in a fresh school recruitment process for 35,726 vacancies, Calcutta high court held Monday and directed SSC to cancel applications by such candidates. SSC had earlier submitted a list of ‘tainted candidates’ before the Supreme Court.The HC bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya also refused to interfere with issues of marks allotment and age relaxation in the fresh recruitment process as that would disrupt the timeline set by the apex court. The SC had directed that a fresh recruitment notification be issued by May 31 and the recruitment process completed by Dec 31.Multiple writ petitions were filed before the HC after the SSC issued the recruitment notification on May 30. While some of the petitioners claimed tainted candidates were being allowed to participate in the process others challenged extra marks for previous teaching experience and age relaxation for untainted candidates.Representing SSC, senior lawyer and TMC MP Kalyan Bandopadhyay, said the fresh recruitment process was open to all – tainted, untainted, and unsuccessful. “Can there be double punishment? Refund of salary has been directed, and service has been terminated with no age benefit. Then can they not sit for the examination? How many times will these people be penalised?” he argued.The senior advocate said the only difference between tainted and untainted candidates in the new process was in terms of relaxation – untainted candidates were allowed an age relaxation but tainted candidates were not. Bandopadhyay argued that if tainted candidates were barred, then unsuccessful candidates should also be barred.Representing the state, advocate-general Kishore Datta argued that the “SC judgment does not say tainted candidates will not be allowed to participate”.Senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya argued that according to an high court division bench order, upheld by the apex court, SSC was supposed to recruit afresh according to the 2016 rules. Bhattacharya specified that only two categories were allowed age relaxation, untainted candidates and disabled candidates. Justice Bhattacharyya made it clear that the court will not interfere in allotment of marks because it’s a policy decision. “What is troubling the court is whether tainted will be permitted to apply. Keeping the selection process alive in terms of the time schedule fixed by the Supreme Court, the court can debar the tainted candidates from participating.”