New Delhi/IBNS: The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed West Bengal government teachers, who have not been identified as "tainted" in the School Service Commission (SSC) scam, to continue working till fresh appointments, media reports said.

The top court bench comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar said the fresh recruitment process will have to be initiated by May 31 with an advertisement and an affidavit in the court.

The deadline to complete the recruitment process has been set as December 31.

In the meantime, only class 9-12 teachers, who have not been identified as tainted, out of almost 26,000 job losers have been allowed to continue with their services.

The court said the relief has been granted keeping in mind the students' plight.

However, the SSC is yet to completely segregate the lists of "tainted" and "untainted" candidates who were recruited in 2016.

A little over 6,000 candidates have so far been identified as "tainted" but court dismissed the entire 2016 recruitment panel after SSC couldn't furnish the total list of undeserving candidates.

The court also mentioned that it can recall its order if the fresh recruitment process is not initiated by May 31.

No such relief has been given to Group C and Group D candidates who too have lost their jobs due to the Supreme Court's April 3 order.

Calcutta HC cancels 2016 recruitments

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.