West Bengal school recruitment scam: School Service Commission publishes list of ‘tainted’ non-teaching staff

The West Bengal School Service Commission released the list of 3,500 ‘defective’ candidates on Monday night, November 3, 2025, following the direction of the Supreme Court in August. They were among the 26,000 teachers and non-teaching staff who lost their jobs following the Supreme Court’s April 3 decision invalidating their jobs due to irregularities in the recruitment process.

The 52-page list published by WBSSC included the names of 3512 “tainted non-teaching candidates” from Groups C and D. Shortly after the list was published, ‘spotless’, non-teaching staff, who have been left in a difficult situation for the past 8 months and have found it difficult to stay afloat without being paid, raised questions as to why they were being punished even though no allegations of corruption against them had been proven.

“Almost 3,000 people are untainted, what has the government done to protect our jobs? Now we have to participate in a new recruitment drive and compete with thousands of candidates to prove our worth, whereas earlier we already had jobs and cleared these exams,” said Amit Mondal, a Group C worker from Adarsha Buniadi Vidya Mandir, Dum Dum Bapuji Colony.

Early on 30 and 31 August, WBSSC published two lists of ‘defective’ teachers. The names of a total of 2824 teachers were included in these lists.

On April 17, the high court allowed ‘tainless’ teachers to continue their duties till December 31, 2025, that is, until the new recruitment process is over. However, the same relief was not given to non-teaching staff, causing them to suffer financial hardship.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had promised a wage of ₹25,000 for Group C employees and ₹20,000 for Group D employees until the dispute is resolved in court. However, Calcutta High Court Judge Amrita Sinha questioned the West Bengal Government’s move and stopped it from giving any money. He questioned why candidates would be given money even though they did not work.

A new recruitment process is underway for both teaching and non-teaching staff, in line with the Supreme Court order which ordered the entire 2016 panel to be canceled and a new recruitment process to be completed by 31 December.