West Bengal SSC Scam: Calcutta High Court Cancels 2,400 Appointments Over Altered Selection List

KOLKATA — The Calcutta High Court has cancelled 2,400 appointments to Group C posts made through the West Bengal School Service Commission after finding that the selection list was altered after it was published, holding that the taint could not be separated from the untainted and that the only remedy was a fresh process. A Division Bench delivered the judgment on 11 October in Anwesha Das v. State of West Bengal, a batch of petitions by unsuccessful candidates.

"A tainted list cannot be partly purified. It has to go," the bench said.

What the court found

• Two lists. The merit list published on the commission's website in 2023 differed from the list on which appointment letters were issued: 312 candidates moved up, 290 moved down, and 118 names appeared in the second list that were absent from the first.
• Missing record. Directed to produce the scanned OMR answer sheets, the commission said the agency that conducted the examination had not preserved them for about 400 candidates — the same candidates whose ranks had changed.
• No explanation. The commission's officers attributed the changes to "data correction" but could not identify who authorised it or on what basis.
• Segregation impossible. Without the original sheets, the court could not determine which of the 2,400 had been selected on merit and which had not.

The Supreme Court's 2025 ruling, and why it governs

The bench applied State of West Bengal v. Baishakhi Bhattacharyya (Chatterjee), decided by the Supreme Court on 3 April 2025, in which a bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar upheld the High Court's cancellation of 25,753 appointments of teachers and non-teaching staff made through the 2016 State Level Selection Test. The Supreme Court held that the selection was "vitiated and tainted beyond resolution" — OMR sheets had been tampered with, candidates had jumped ranks, and appointments had been made beyond the panel and after its expiry — and that where manipulation on that scale is coupled with an attempted cover-up, the credibility of the whole process is "denuded".

The Supreme Court directed that tainted candidates be terminated and refund their salaries, exempted candidates not identified as tainted from any refund, and, by a further order of 17 April 2025, allowed untainted teachers to continue until a fresh recruitment was completed. The Calcutta High Court held that the present case fell within the same rule: the alteration of the list was manipulation, the loss of the sheets was a cover-up, and the original record could no longer be trusted.

When can a whole selection be scrapped?

Articles 14 and 16 guarantee equality of opportunity in public employment, and the courts protect it in two ways. Where irregularities are confined to identifiable candidates, only those candidates are removed, so that innocent selectees do not suffer — the approach in Union of India v. Rajesh P.U., (2003) 7 SCC 285, and Inderpreet Singh Kahlon v. State of Punjab, (2006) 11 SCC 356. Where the irregularities are systemic and the tainted cannot be identified, the whole process is set aside, as in Sachin Kumar v. Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board, (2021) 4 SCC 631, and Baishakhi Bhattacharyya. The test, the bench said, is not how many candidates were tainted but whether the record allows the court to tell.

A tainted list cannot be partly purified. It has to go.

From the judgment

What the court ordered

1. All 2,400 appointments are set aside.
2. The commission must advertise and complete a fresh selection within four months, under the supervision of a retired judge of the High Court.
3. Candidates not identified as tainted may continue in service until the fresh process concludes, without any right to the post, and may apply afresh with relaxation of age.
4. The 118 candidates who appeared only in the second list, and any others the investigation identifies, are terminated, must refund salaries and are debarred from the fresh process.
5. The alteration of the list is referred to the state Criminal Investigation Department, with a report to the court in eight weeks, and the commission's secretary and the examination agency must show cause.

What it means

• For the appointees: those not identified as tainted keep their salaries, continue for now and must compete again. Those identified as tainted lose the post, the pay and the right to reapply.
• For unsuccessful candidates: the fresh process is their remedy; the court declined to direct appointment of any petitioner.
• For recruiting bodies: the judgment turns on the loss of the record. Boards that preserve scanned answer sheets, publish a single final list and log every change to it will be able to defend a selection; boards that cannot will lose the whole of it.

Timeline

• 2016 — West Bengal SSC conducts the State Level Selection Test; 25,753 appointment letters issued against 24,640 posts.
• 22 Apr 2024 — Calcutta High Court cancels all 2016 appointments.
• 3 Apr 2025 — Supreme Court upholds the cancellation in Baishakhi Bhattacharyya.
• 17 Apr 2025 — Supreme Court allows untainted teachers to continue pending fresh recruitment.
• 2023–24 — Group C selection list published, then altered; petitions filed.
• 11 Oct 2026 — Division Bench cancels 2,400 appointments and orders a fresh process.

The Counsel will report any appeal to the Supreme Court and the progress of the fresh recruitment. Appointees affected by the order should consult a qualified service-law practitioner about their individual position.

This report is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Readers should consult a qualified lawyer about their own circumstances. Case citations are to The Counsel Reports (TCR) unless otherwise stated.