SSC job case: Denying identified 'tainted' candidates to appear in fresh recruitment process is 'double punishment', says Bengal govt

Kolkata, July 9 (IANS) The counsel for the West Bengal government and West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) said on Wednesday at a division bench of the Calcutta High Court that denying permission to identified "tainted" candidates from participating in the fresh recruitment process of the commission to fill up teaching job posts in the state lying vacant following a Supreme Court order in April this year, would mean "double-punishment" for such candidates.

On Monday, Calcutta High Court's single-judge bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharya said 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.

On Tuesday, the state government and the WBSSC approached the division bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Smita Das challenging that part of the single-judge bench order which directed the exclusion of identified "tainted" candidates from the fresh recruitment process.

The matter came up for hearing at the division bench on Wednesday and the counsel for the commission and Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha member Kalyan Banerjee argued that denying permission to the identified "tainted" candidates from participating in the fresh recruitment process would mean double-punishment for them.

According to Kalyan Banerjee, such candidates have not only lost their jobs but would also be required to return the salary they received during their service period, and hence in such a situation denial of permission to participate in the fresh recruitment process would be a double-punishment for them.

As per Banerjee's argument, one individual could not receive multiple punishments for the same offence.

On Wednesday, the division bench asked the commission to furnish the number of identified "tainted" candidates who made applications to participate in the fresh recruitment process.

The commission told the court that the total number of such candidates submitting applications for the fresh recruitment process as of now stood at 180 or 10 present of the total number of candidates already identified as "tainted" once.

The "untainted candidates" have asked why the state government and commission were so eager to protect the interests of the tainted candidates who got jobs paying money.

--IANS

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