New Delhi/IBNS: The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave the final opportunity to the respondents to file their pleas counter to the West Bengal government, SSC and others in the alleged teacher recruitment scam in the state, media reports said. 

The top court has asked the respondents to file their affidavits within two weeks, failing which they would lose all rights to counter.

"No counter affidavit has been filed till date. In the event that any of the respondents seek to file their counters, they shall do so on or before 2 weeks, if no counter is filed then the right to file counter affidavit shall stand closed and the proceedings shall be conducted on the basis of the record as it stands," the court said as quoted by Live Law. 

The respondents had challenged the appointments made by SSC allegedly in exchange of money.

In April, the Supreme Court had paused the Calcutta High Court order cancelling over 25,000 teacher recruitments to government and government-aided schools in West Bengal and also halted the HC order directing CBI probe into the role of state officials in the alleged scam.

The top court had halted the Calcutta HC order while it was hearing a petition by the state government against a high court order invalidating the School Service Commission (SSC)-led appointment of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff in state-run and state-aided schools.

"We will stay the direction which says the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) will undertake further investigation against officials in the state government," said a bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra.

The top court has now permitted the CBI to continue with its probe to find out the officials involved in the alleged scam but prevented it from taking coercive steps.