Kolkata, July 8 (IANS) A challenge petition was filed in the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday against its single-judge bench’s order on the fresh recruitment notification by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) for filling up teaching posts in state-run schools lying vacant following a Supreme Court order cancelling 25,753 jobs in April this year on the grounds that it “was not conclusive”.

On Monday, the single judge bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharya stated that the candidates already identified as “tainted” should be excluded from the fresh selection process and also said that if any such candidate who had already been identified as “tainted” had submitted his application for the fresh recruitment process, his application should be summarily rejected.

However, the single-judge bench did not entertain the contention of the petitioners against the two new weightage criteria introduced in the fresh recruitment notification carrying 10 marks each, first under the head of “prior teaching experience” and the second under “lecture demonstration”.

The contention of the petitioners was that the procedure to be followed in the fresh recruitment process should be the same as that followed in 2016, the entire panel of which was cancelled by the Supreme Court in April this year.

On Tuesday, a fresh petition was filed before the division bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Smita Das challenging Monday’s order by the single-judge bench. In the fresh petition, the petitioners have argued that since the entire recruitment process in the panel of 2016 was termed as illegal by the Supreme Court in April, then why those teachers whose jobs have been cancelled would be allowed to take advantage of the two new weightage of “prior teaching experience” and “lecture demonstration”.

The petitioners claimed that the fresh recruitment process should provide a level playing field for all eligible candidates. They also argued that the new weight criteria would put the fresher candidates at a disadvantage in the fresh recruitment process.

–IANS

src/vd