Can post digital OMR sheets of 22 lakh candidates after legal advice: Bratya after meeting with agitating teachers

BJP MP faces ‘go back’ slogan at teachers' hunger strike site

PTI, KOLKATA, APRIL 11, 2025 : The West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) is ready to publish the digital mirror images of Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets of all 22 lakh candidates who appeared for the 2016 exams with appropriate legal advice, state Education Minister Bratya Basu said on Friday. The Supreme Court had on April 3 upheld a 2024 Calcutta High Court judgment annulling the recruitment of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff appointed through the 2016 SSC recruitment drive, terming the entire selection process "vitiated and tainted".

Emerging from a meeting with agitating teachers and non-teaching staff, Basu said the state government was hopeful of publishing the list within two weeks. Basu said although the SSC does not retain its own digital images of the OMR sheets in question, it does possess copies of those sheets retrieved by the CBI during its course of investigation, and which the agency later shared with the commission.

“Since the matter concerns a judgment of the Supreme Court which we cannot violate, we are seeking legal advice to publish the list of deserving and tainted candidates by means of putting up the OMR sheets concerned on the SSC website.”

“If there are no legal hurdles, we should be able to complete the task within two weeks,” the minister said, while confirming that the prospective deadline for publication is April 21.

Earlier in the day, the familiar scenes of mass agitation returned to the streets of Kolkata — echoes of the protests over the ghastly rape-murder at RG Kar Hospital — this time led by thousands of teachers and non-teaching staff who lost their jobs following a Supreme Court verdict that invalidated their appointments.

Chants of 'We want justice' shattered the sultry afternoon air, accompanied by visible outrage and frustration as demonstrators marched along the Salt Lake route. Their march from Karunamoyee to Acharya Sadan, the office of the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC), was held in demand for the release of the 22 lakh Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets to identify the genuine candidates who appeared for the 2016 SSC exams and whose entire panel was annulled by the top court after it found the selection process "vitiated and tainted" beyond redemption.

Carrying placards demanding reinstatement, the protesters were joined by members of various civil society organisations in a show of solidarity. "SSC should release the copies of the OMR sheets to help segregate the eligible teachers," a demonstrator said.

Protesters squatted on the road and eagerly awaited the outcome of the crucial meeting between representatives of the teachers who lost their jobs and the education minister Bratya Basu. "We will not leave the streets until a mutually agreeable solution is found to this impasse," another protester said.

"This agitation will only gain momentum from here on if the state government fails to reinstate the deserving candidates who were put in the same bracket and punished with the tainted ones who gained employment by fraudulent means," the protester said further.

A large contingent of police and RAF personnel were deployed at the SSC office to stop the agitation from spiralling out of control. Friday's protests gained additional steam on account of police action against protesting teachers at the office of the District Inspector of Schools at Kasba in South Kolkata on Wednesday, where the men in uniform were seen opening lathi charge on the agitators and even showering them with blows and kicks.

Teachers claimed that the police officer accused of kicking the protestors in Kasba has now been assigned to investigate the cases registered against them. "What can we expect from such a probe? In no civilised society does an accused investigate the victims," a protester remarked.

Meanwhile, Calcutta High Court judge-turned-BJP MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay was on Friday greeted with “go back” slogans when he visited the site, where a section of the teachers who lost their jobs following a Supreme Court judgment, were on hunger strike since the previous day.

The agitators said they do not want political figures in their agitation, while Gangopadhyay, before leaving the spot, claimed that ultra Left-backed protesters were behind the slogans raised against him.

"I came here only to extend moral support. I have closely followed the episode in which over 25,000 teaching and non-teaching staff lost their jobs due to corruption in the 2016 recruitment process. I wanted to help," Gangopadhyay told reporters near the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) office.

The former judge, along with former Rajya Sabha MP Rupa Ganguly, had visited the protest site at ‘Acharya Sadan’ on Thursday too to express solidarity with the teachers and other staff who lost their jobs, but did not face protests. On Friday evening, however, when Gangopadhyay tried to address the protesters, he faced resistance and slogans demanding his departure. He was eventually escorted out of the protest site by police.

He said: “I think ultra Left-backed protesters are behind this (sloganeering against him).”

The agitating teachers started an indefinite hunger strike outside the SSC office building 'Acharya Sadan' in Salt Lake near here on Thursday morning to protest the loss of jobs and police lathi-charge against their compatriots in south Kolkata’s Kasba area on April 10.

The agitators asserted they do not want politicians to be part of their protest. "We are victims of politics and lost our jobs because of this. We will not allow political figures. This is our fight, and we will continue it on our own," one of the agitating teachers told reporters.