[Recruitment Scam] Can SSC Defend Cause Of 'Tainted Candidates' Who Were Barred From Re-Applying? Calcutta High Court Asks State

"Can the school service commission defend the cause of candidates who were labelled as tainted by the Supreme Court in the recruitment scam?" the Calcutta High Court asked recently.

A division bench of Justices Soumen Sen and Smita Das De was hearing an appeal against a single bench order which had debarred tainted candidates from reapplying under the fresh recruitment process, in line with the Supreme Court's orders.

The division bench questioned Senior Advocate Kalyan Bandopadhyay appearing for the SSC, on whether the SSC, which was a state-run commission, had the locus to agitate the cause of candidates who had been labelled as tainted by the Supreme Court and had lost their jobs and salaries.

The court asked the SSC to submit whether it could agitate the cause of such candidates and why it was choosing to do so.

Bandopadhyay submitted that if tainted candidates had been debarred from re-applying, then even those candidates who were unsuccessful should be barred from reapplying under the process.

It was further submitted that there was no indication in the Supreme Court order that tainted candidates would be debarred from re-applying under the fresh recruitment process.

However, the court questioned why a candidate who was unsuccesful would be debarred from applying under future selection processes.