WBSSC Recruitment Case: Hearing on Contempt-of-Court Petition Postponed to 1 May

AGENCIES | KOLKATA, 28 APRIL, 2025 : The crucial hearing on the contempt-of-court petition filed at Calcutta High Court, accusing the state government and the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) of not implementing the Supreme Court (SC) order in cancelling 25,753 teaching and non-teaching jobs, has been postponed to 1 May. The matter, as scheduled, came up for hearing at Calcutta High Court's division bench of Justice Debangshu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi on Monday afternoon. However, as the proceedings in the matter started, the counsel for the state government sought more time to present his arguments. The division bench accepted the plea of the state government counsel and, accordingly, 1 May was scheduled as the next day of hearing in the matter.

During Monday's hearing, the state government requested more time to present its arguments, which the division bench accepted.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court division bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar had upheld an earlier order by a division bench of the Calcutta High Court, cancelling 25,753 teaching (secondary and higher secondary) and non-teaching jobs in state-run schools. The SC also accepted the observation of the Calcutta High Court that the entire panel had to be cancelled due to the failure on the part of the state government and the commission to segregate candidates. Thereafter, the contempt-of-court petition was filed against the West Bengal government and WBSSC, accusing the latter of not implementing the order of the apex court.

In the last hearing on 23 April, the WBSSC counsel questioned the authority of the Calcutta High Court to hear the contempt-of-court petition. The WBSSC counsel argued that although the SC had upheld last year's order by the Calcutta High Court's division bench, the apex court had ordered some changes in the Calcutta High Court's order. Hence, argued the WBSSC counsel, any hearing in the matter now could only be at the SC. However, the counsel for the petitioner, in his counter-argument, submitted that since the apex court had upheld the main part of the Calcutta High Court's order, which was regarding the cancellation of the entire panel for WBSSC for 2016, the said division bench had every authority to hear the contempt-of-court petition.