Kolkata, Nov 19 (IANS) A petition filed at the Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha challenging the results of the written examination for fresh recruitment of higher secondary teachers in state-run schools of West Bengal is scheduled to come up for its first hearing on Wednesday.

The fresh recruitment is taking place to fill vacancies arising from the cancellation of around 26,000 school jobs by a division bench of the Supreme Court earlier this year. While pronouncing that judgement in April this year, the apex court barred the “tainted” teachers, who had obtained the jobs after paying money, from participating in the fresh recruitment process.

The petitioner in the case has alleged that by defying the Supreme Court’s direction, the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) allowed several “tainted” candidates to appear for the written examination in the fresh recruitment process. Many of them even qualified for the interview as per the results of the written exam published last week.

Around 20,000 candidates, who appeared for the written test for the fresh recruitment process, have qualified for the interview. The process of verifying their documents began on November 18.

On Wednesday, another petition was filed at the single-judge bench of Justice Sinha, challenging the results, though on different grounds. In this second petition, the petitioner had argued why candidates with past teaching experience with government-recognised private schools will not be able to enjoy the additional weightage criterion of 10 marks, which is extended to candidates with past teaching experience with state-run schools.

The hearing on the second petition will happen either on Thursday or on Friday.

The Supreme Court, on April 3 this year, upheld an earlier order by a division bench of the Calcutta High Court cancelling the entire panel of WBSSC for 2016.

The Supreme Court also accepted the Calcutta High Court’s argument that the entire panel had to be cancelled since, despite repeated insistence both by the high court as well as the apex court, neither the state education department nor the commission furnished two separate lists segregating the “untainted” candidates from the “tainted” ones.

The apex court directed that the entire fresh recruitment process will have to be completed by December 31 this year.

Although the Supreme Court barred the “tainted” teachers from participating in the fresh recruitment process, it allowed “untainted” teachers to participate.

–IANS

src/dpb