Kolkata/IBNS: A massive march to the School Service Commission (SSC) office was conducted by teaching and non-teaching staff who lost their jobs owing to the Supreme Court order that cancelled the entire 2016 recruitment process.

The job losers started their march from Karunamoyee in Salt Lake City, Kolkata.

The protesters, who are demanding the mirror image of the list of deserving candidates, have camped outside the SSC office.

The job losers cleared they won't leave the venue until their demands are met.

This comes a day after the agitators held a long march in downtown Kolkata in protest against the police assault on them during their demonstration outside the District Inspector of Schools office on Wednesday.

In a massive judgement, the Supreme Court cancelled appointments of nearly 26,000 teaching and non-teaching staff by the SSC upholding the Calcutta High Court's order.

The top court passed the order after the SSC failed to provide two separate lists of deserving and undeserving candidates after the government faced corruption allegations in the recruitment process.

A top court bench comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar said the selection process was "vitiated and tainted by fraud".

In April 2024, the Calcutta High Court had cancelled recruitment of nearly 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff in government-sponsored and government-aided schools, dismissing the entire 2016 teacher recruitment panel.

The panel was constituted by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).

Erstwhile state education minister Partha Chatterjee, former primary education board president and Trinamool MLA Manik Bhattacharya, youth leader Kuntal Ghosh are among the people who were arrested so far in connection with the scam.

Former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Ganguly, who is now contesting the Lok Sabha elections on a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket, had ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged irregularities in the recruitment process.