West Bengal School Jobs Scam: A Timeline of SSC Irregularities, Investigations and Court Rulings

Fresh recruitment redone after the OBC quota change Established

On 18 May 2026 the new government announced 7 per cent OBC reservation for 66 classes, replacing the earlier 17 per cent (10 per cent OBC-A, 7 per cent OBC-B) under which the 2025 recruitment had been advertised (The Telegraph). On 28 September 2026 the commission withdrew its Classes XI-XII final panel and waiting list of January 2026, the counselling held on them and the recommendation letters already issued; the total stayed at 12,445 posts but the category split changed (Millennium Post). Its notice of 12 October 2026 published a revised preliminary interview list for Classes IX-X, based on revised vacancies sent by the secondary board on 3 September 2026 after a Backward Classes Welfare Department clarification of 7 August 2026 (WBSSC notice). Existing written-test and interview scores are being reused. Teachers told The Telegraph that cases challenging the mid-process change were already pending in the High Court.

Group C and D staff retested; results delayed Unresolved

About 3,500 non-teaching employees deemed untainted were asked to take fresh tests, held in March 2026. The commission chairman, Dushyant Nariala, had promised results before Durga Puja; an SSC official blamed the delay on revising the seat matrix after the OBC cut, and many have been without salary for 19 months. A June 2025 state plan to pay them an allowance was stayed by the High Court (The Telegraph, Oct 2026).

CBI bid to cancel Partha Chatterjee’s bail is rejected Court order

The CBI told its special court at Bichar Bhavan, Kolkata, that the former education minister had not reported to the investigating officer every week as his bail required (IANS via SocialNews.xyz). His lawyer said he had been in hospital several times and was on bed rest. The court rejected the plea: bail once granted is cancelled only in exceptional cases, medical records showed he was ill and weak, he could meet investigators virtually, and in that case investigation was complete, charges had been framed and witness evidence had begun (Ei Samay, 17 Oct 2026, Anandabazar). Ei Samay and Anandabazar place this plea in the primary-teacher recruitment case, with bail granted by the High Court on 26 September 2025; IANS described it as the SSC case. AiTimeline has not seen the order.

Supreme Court gives untainted teachers until 31 May 2027 Court order

The Supreme Court extended salaries and service for the “untainted but terminated” teachers until 31 May 2027 so the state can finish fresh recruitment, and indicated it was the final extension (The Telegraph, WION, EducationWorld). The August 2026 deadline had been missed: on 20 August the commission told the Court it wanted to recast the initial panels for the new 7 per cent OBC quota and sought eight more months. The Telegraph puts the number of teachers at 15,403; WION reported about 17,000. Terminated non-teaching staff got no similar relief (The Telegraph).

ED files a supplementary complaint in the Group C and D case Allegation

The ED said it filed its first supplementary prosecution complaint against Partha Chatterjee, Arpita Mukherjee, expelled TMC leader Kuntal Ghosh and others, in continuation of its complaint dated 22 January 2025 (ED press release). It alleges lists of undeserving candidates were prepared on Chatterjee’s directions and routed through middlemen led by Prasanna Kumar Roy, with OMR scores manipulated, ranks jumped, letters forged or back-dated and appointments made after panels expired. It puts candidates’ payments at Rs 15-16 lakh for Group C and Rs 10-12 lakh for Group D posts and quantifies proceeds of crime at at least Rs 630.40 crore. It says it has attached about Rs 247.35 crore in this case and more than Rs 702 crore across the SSC and primary-teacher cases. These are the agency’s allegations, which Chatterjee denies.

ED’s third complaint in the assistant-teacher case Allegation

The ED filed its third prosecution complaint in the Classes IX-XII assistant-teacher recruitment case, naming Partha Chatterjee, Arpita Mukherjee and expelled TMC leader Kuntal Ghosh among others (PTI via ThePrint). This is separate from the Group C and D case.

SSC uploads scanned OMR sheets two days before a Supreme Court hearing Established

The commission uploaded scanned images of the 2016 OMR sheets for Classes IX-X and XI-XII, “as available in hard disc drives received from the CBI”, saying it was complying with the 3 April 2025 judgment. The Calcutta High Court had ordered the upload on 22 April 2024. The Supreme Court had issued contempt notices to the school education department and the SSC in March 2026 on a petition filed in July 2025, and the notice said images for non-teaching posts would follow “shortly” (The Telegraph). The notice gave no total. The Times of India reported about 22 lakh sheets, while The Economic Times reported sheets for 3.5 lakh candidates (Times of India). AiTimeline found no report of what happened at the 11 May hearing.

Candidates can check their own sheets by roll number, but a scan does not prove the marks recorded in the merit list were correct. The CBI has reported mismatches between the commission’s server data and the recovered disks (IBTimes).

A new government takes office in Bengal Established

The BJP ended 15 years of Trinamool rule, winning 207 of 294 seats; Suvendu Adhikari took oath as chief minister on 9 May 2026 (The Quint). The OMR upload came the same weekend, and protest leaders thanked the new chief minister (Asianet Newsable). The SSC official quoted by The Telegraph tied the earlier delay to the absence of an explicit OMR direction in the April 2025 judgment and to the pending contempt case, not to the change of government. The 2016 recruitment is a court-decided matter; the change of government did not alter the Supreme Court’s cancellation.

Deadline moved to 31 August 2026; fresh counselling begins Court order

The Supreme Court accepted an application on 18 December 2025 and moved the fresh-recruitment deadline from 31 December 2025 to 31 August 2026; the secondary board said 15,403 untainted teachers could continue until then (Free Press Journal, Millennium Post). By May 2026 counselling had begun for 12,514 higher-secondary vacancies, while interviews for 23,314 secondary posts had not started (The Telegraph). Vacancy counts have since been revised (12,445 for Classes XI-XII in September).

Tainted-candidates list re-released with more detail Court order

After a Calcutta High Court order, the commission put out a fuller version of the list of 1,806 candidates, adding parents’ names, subjects, roll numbers and dates of birth, but not the schools (The Week). On 8 January 2026 the court noted that the list did not state the category in which each candidate was found tainted or the school and district of appointment, and asked for a fuller list, with the next hearing on 11 February (Careers360). AiTimeline found no report of a later list.

Partha Chatterjee leaves jail on bail Court order

He was released after the trial court finished recording the material witnesses the Supreme Court had named as a condition of bail in the CBI cases. The Supreme Court had granted him bail in the ED case on 13 December 2024 (IANS), and the Calcutta High Court granted bail in the CBI teacher-recruitment case in September 2025 with conditions including a bar on holding public office during the trial (The Week). He had been arrested by the ED on 23 July 2022 (The Week). Bail is not acquittal; he denies the allegations.

Fresh teacher exams held for 35,726 posts Established

The commission held new State Level Selection Tests on 7 and 14 September 2025 for 35,726 assistant-teacher posts. Reports gave over 3 lakh candidates for the Classes IX-X sitting and about 2.4 lakh for Classes XI-XII (Careers360).

SSC publishes a list of 1,804 tainted candidates Established

The SSC published a list of 1,804 teachers identified as tainted (The Week). The source brief dated a 1,806-name list to 30 August 2024; the reports found put the first list in August 2025 and the 1,806-name version in November 2025.

Review petitions dismissed Court order

The Supreme Court dismissed a batch of review petitions, including the West Bengal government’s, saying they sought a rehearing on merits of the 3 April ruling and refusing open-court listing (The Week).

Candidates with tampered OMR sheets barred from the new process Court order

The Court refused to let candidates whose OMR sheets were found tampered with join the new recruitment “under any circumstances”, and rejected a similar plea from candidates accused of unjustified rank jumps (The Week). Reports described a list of more than 6,000 ineligible candidates acknowledged by the commission.

Untainted Classes IX-XII teachers allowed to stay temporarily Court order

The Court let untainted assistant teachers for Classes IX-XII continue while fresh recruitment ran, with an advertisement due by 31 May 2025 and the process to finish by 31 December 2025. Group C and D staff were excluded because of the higher share of tainted candidates there (Legally Present). This was interim relief, not restoration of the 2016 panel.

Supreme Court upholds the cancellation of the entire 2016 panel Court order

The Court held the 2016 selection “vitiated and tainted beyond resolution”, noting that 24,640 posts had drawn about 23 lakh candidates and 25,753 appointment letters were issued (Tribune). It relied on admitted rank-jumping, appointments from outside the panel, appointments the commission had not recommended, marks given to candidates who attempted no questions, and the destruction of OMR sheets and scanned copies, which it read as a cover-up (SCC Online). Tainted candidates must refund salary; untainted staff need not, but their service ends. Fresh recruitment was ordered. Judgment: Supreme Court of India.

ED files its first prosecution complaint in the Group C and D case Allegation

The ED’s own August 2026 release dates its first complaint in the Group C and D case to 22 January 2025 (ED). In June 2025 the agency attached Rs 27.19 crore in tea-estate property linked to Prasanna Kumar Roy, whom it calls the main middleman, and said Roy and his agent Chandan Mondal were in judicial custody and Rs 219.91 crore had been attached earlier in this case (ED, 24 Jun 2025). The source brief’s figures of 3,432 appointments and Rs 163.66 crore come from a January 2025 release whose link now returns a 404 error, so they are not repeated.

Supreme Court stays the cancellation and the CBI’s further-inquiry direction Court order

On 29 April the Court stayed the High Court’s direction for further CBI investigation into state officials but did not yet stay the cancellation. On 7 May 2024 it stayed the cancellation, let the CBI continue without coercive steps such as arrests, and made continued employment conditional on refunding salary if the final decision went against the appointees. It asked why OMR sheets and scanned copies had been destroyed (Business Today, LiveLaw). The brief described this as a single order; reports show two steps.

Calcutta High Court cancels the 2016 recruitment Court order

A division bench declared the 2016 State Level Selection Test recruitment null and void and cancelled all appointments, saying it was impossible to separate valid from invalid selections because of non-cooperation by the SSC and the state. Appointees were told to return salary within four weeks with 12 per cent interest, and the CBI was told to investigate further, including the cabinet decision creating supernumerary posts (Verdictum, Orissa Post). Reports differ on the count (24,000 to 25,753). It also ordered the OMR sheets uploaded; The Telegraph reports 17,209 teachers and the rest Group C and D staff.

Judge removed from the case; CBI told to finish; more arrests Court order

The CBI arrested Burwan MLA Jiban Krishna Saha on 17 April 2023. On 28 April the Supreme Court moved the hearings from Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay to Justice Amrita Sinha after he gave a media interview on the case, with CJI D.Y. Chandrachud saying judges have no business doing so on pending matters (Wikipedia). On 9 November 2023 the Supreme Court directed the CBI to finish its inquiry within two months (SCC Online).

CBI files its first charge sheet and arrests widen Allegation

The CBI filed a charge sheet against 12 accused, including Partha Chatterjee, in the recruitment case (Careers360). By then the agencies had arrested the minister’s circle: SSC advisory committee convenor Shanti Prasad Sinha and SSC secretary Ashok Saha (10 Aug), former board chairman Kalyanmoy Gangopadhyay (15 Sep) and Subiresh Bhattacharya (19 Sep) (Wikipedia). Three hard disks of scanned OMR data were reportedly recovered in September 2022 from a former vendor employee (IBTimes).

ED arrests education minister Partha Chatterjee Allegation

The ED arrested then-education minister Partha Chatterjee. Its first raid on the Kolkata flat of his alleged associate Arpita Mukherjee reported about Rs 21 crore in cash plus jewellery (Wikipedia). The ED now says searches at her premises, in the linked primary-teacher case, yielded about Rs 49.80 crore in cash and Rs 5.08 crore in gold and jewellery, and calls her a custodian of illicit funds (ED). The TMC suspended him and he was dropped from the ministry on 28 July. Cash found at a property does not by itself prove whose it was or that it was proceeds of crime; both deny wrongdoing.

High Court orders CBI probes into Group C and D appointments Court order

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay ordered CBI inquiries into irregular non-teaching appointments in aided schools from February 2022, despite earlier appeals, and a division bench stayed one of them for three weeks (LiveLaw). On 18 May 2022 a division bench of Justices Ananda Kumar Mukherjee and Subrata Talukdar upheld the CBI probe into Group C appointments, calling the irregularities a “public scam”. A committee led by retired Justice Ranjit Kumar Bag had reported 381 illegal Group C appointments and recommended prosecution of former SSC officials (LiveLaw). The brief placed a CBI order for teacher recruitment in March 2022; the reports found concern non-teaching posts.

The 2016 State Level Selection Test recruitment Established

The commission advertised the 1st State Level Selection Test for Assistant Teachers for Classes IX-X and XI-XII in 2016 (applications 19 February to 15 March 2016 under the first notification); separate recruitment covered Group C and D staff. The Supreme Court later noted that the panel was valid for one year, that OMR sheets for assistant teachers could be destroyed under the rules only after that period, and that the commission kept recruiting after it ended (SCC Online). The brief dated the notification to 2014; the reports found date the 1st SLST notification to 2016.