West Bengal polls: 26 of 35 staffers on election duty, SSC flags hiring delay

KOLKATA: The West Bengal Central School Service Commission on Wednesday told the Calcutta High Court that it may not be able to meet the Supreme Court's Aug 31 deadline for fresh recruitment, as 26 of its 35 employees have been deployed on election duty by the Election Commission of India.

The matter was mentioned before the single-judge bench of Justice Krishna Rao and is likely to be taken up on an urgent basis on Monday. It was submitted before the court that although the Supreme Court had directed completion of the recruitment process by Aug 31, the deployment of a significant number of SSC staff on election duty could hinder timely completion.




The board is currently conducting the interviews. The original deadline was set for March but was later extended.

According to the commission, it has only 35 employees in total, and 26 of them have been assigned to election-related duties. One official said: "Their training is likely to begin on April 27. In that case, how can we conduct the counselling process for 35 subjects at the higher secondary level? If the entire process is halted for a month, it will be difficult to meet the Aug 31 deadline."

The SSC argued in court that unless those employees were relieved of election duty, it will be extremely difficult to complete the recruitment process within the time fixed by the apex court.

The recruitment process is being conducted under the shadow of the 2016 school job case. Earlier, the Calcutta High Court cancelled the entire 2016 panel over allegations of corruption. That order was challenged in the Supreme Court, but the top court upheld the high court's decision.

The Supreme Court then directed that fresh examinations be held, excluding ineligible candidates. Following that order, the recruitment exercise began again. Written examinations for higher secondary and secondary levels, as well as for clerk and Group-D posts, have already been completed. The counselling process for the higher secondary level is underway while the verification process for the secondary level is ongoing.