Not allowing SSC candidates who have been identified as ‘ineligible’ to participate in the recruitment process would be an interference with their fundamental rights, the West Bengal Government has argued in court.

Just like it had stood by the ineligible candidates in the single bench hearing on Monday, similarly, the state government stood by them while arguing before the division bench of the Calcutta High Court in the SSC case on Wednesday.

Ineligible candidates cannot appear for SSC recruitment exam: Calcutta High Court

In a major blow to the West Bengal Government and the School Service Commission (SSC), the Calcutta High Court had said on Monday that candidates identified as “ineligible” will not be able to appear for the new SSC recruitment exam in 2025.

Justice Saugata Bhattacharya of the Calcutta High Court directed the SSC and state government to exclude any of the ‘identified ineligible candidates’ from appearing for the examination even if they have applied. The court directed that if any identified ineligible candidate has already applied, the application should be rejected.

Supreme Court has no objection to participation ineligible candidates in recruitment: SSC

On Wednesday, Senior lawyer Kalyan Banerjee, representing the SSC, said that the Supreme Court has no objection to the participation of ‘identified ineligible candidates’ in the new recruitment process of the SSC. He claimed that if the identified ineligible candidates cannot participate in the recruitment, then the unsuccessful candidates cannot do that either.

Candidates who lost jobs due to corruption can participate in recruitment? Court asks SSC

Reacting to this, Justice Soumen Sen asked, “Someone who has participated in a recruitment process and was unsuccessful, how can they participate in that recruitment process again?”

The court also asked the commission whether, according to the Supreme Court’s observations, those who have committed corruption and whose jobs have been cancelled for fraud, will they also be able to participate in this recruitment?

To this, the lawyer replied saying that the commission and the state have the power to take policy decisions which will benefit interest of the people of the state.

The commission further said that 2 Lakh 60 Thousand applications have been submitted so far. Of these, only 188 candidates identified as ineligible have submitted application out of the total 1801 ineligible candidates.

Teachers who had already joined service, how can their experience be taken away?: SSC

Whether illegally or through irregularities, these identified ineligible people got the jobs and even joined the service. As a result, how can their experience be taken away, the commission argued. It further said that now these candidates are not allowed to participate in the recruitment process, it will cause them a major loss.

State Attorney General (AG) Kishore Dutta further said that not allowing them to participate in the recruitment process would be an interference with the fundamental rights of these identified ineligible candidates. The state argued that the Supreme Court did not want to snatch future opportunities of the ineligible candidates.