The WBSSC has to recruit fresh teachers by the end of the year as per the apex court order, and the recruitment exams are scheduled to be held on September 7. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
Names of several Trinamool Congress leaders and their kin have surfaced in the list of ‘tainted/ineligible’ candidates published by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) as per the directions of the Supreme Court.
The List 1 with 1,804 names was published by the WBSSC on Saturday (August 30, 2025). By Sunday (August 31, 2025), the names of Trinamool Congress leaders and their relatives started coming to light.
The most notable names include Sampa Ghosh, daughter-in-law of Panihati MLA and chief whip of the Trinamool Congress Nirmal Ghosh. The Trinamool MLA told media persons that the matter was before the court and the law would take its own course.
The other names include Ankita Adhikari, daughter of former Minister and MLA Paresh Chandra Adhikari. The inclusion of the former Minister’s daughter was challenged before the Calcutta High Court, which has cancelled her appointment.
Others included were Roshnara Begum, daughter of Trinamool MLA from Chopra Hamidul Rahman, Namita Adak, wife of Trinamool leader from Khanakhul Naimul Haque.
The other names include TMC councillors Kuheli Ghosh and Priyanka Mondal and party leader from Pingla Ajoy Maji. The name of Swapna Biswas, daughter of New Barrackpore Municipality deputy chairman Satbabdi Biswas, has also surfaced in the list. The names of TMC leader from Hooghly Bivas Malick and his wife Santoshi Malik also figure in the list.
A fresh list of two ‘tainted candidates’ was declared by the WBSSC, which took the total number to 1,806. With almost a dozen names of Trinamool leaders and their kin in the list, the Opposition parties sharpened their attack on the West Bengal ruling party. Leaders of both the BJP and the CPI(M) said these names proved the complicity of the higher-ups in the teacher recruitment scam.
Supreme Court’s directive
The WBSSC came out with the list of tainted candidates after a Supreme Court Bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Satish Chandra Sharma came down heavily on the commission and directed it to publish the names. The court asked the WBSSC to ensure that tainted candidates would not be able to appear for the fresh recruitment process.
Despite earlier orders of the Calcutta High Court barring the tainted candidates who used unfair means to get appointment in the recruitment process of 2016, about 1,400 candidates in the list of 1,806 have applied for the fresh recruitment process. Application and admit cards issued to them now stand cancelled.
The WBSSC has to recruit fresh teachers by the end of the year as per the apex court order, and the recruitment exams are scheduled to be held on September 7.
Several persons whose names have appeared on the list said there was no basis why the commission had put their names as tainted candidates in the public domain. These people are likely to challenge the list before the court.
Meanwhile, several lawyers, including senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, said the list was incomplete and the actual number was about 6,000.
The Supreme Court on April 3, 2025, upheld the Calcutta High Court order and annulled the appointment of nearly 26,000 jobs of teaching and non-teaching staff in West Bengal, by calling the 2016 recruitment process fraught with fraud and irregularities.
The entire panel was cancelled because the West Bengal government and the Commission failed to segregate ‘tainted’ candidates (whose appointments were made using illegal means) from ‘untainted’ candidates (whose appointments were made following due process).
Published – August 31, 2025 10:32 pm IST
