Calcutta HC dismisses all petitions challenging SSC's 2025 recruitment rules

The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday dismissed all petitions challenging the West Bengal School Service Commission’s (SSC) 2025 recruitment notification and associated rules. A division bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Smita Das began pronouncing the verdict at 2 PM and ruled that there was no scope for judicial interference in the Commission's recruitment notification or procedures. The petitions were filed by candidates who were previously denied jobs under earlier recruitment cycles.

Arguments concluded on Monday, with Advocate General Kishore Dutta representing the state, advocate Kalyan Banerjee representing SSC, and advocates Anindya Mitra and Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya representing the petitioners. The petitioners demanded that the recruitment process follow the 2016 rules. However, the court upheld SSC’s right to define eligibility criteria and marking schemes, stating that all petitions challenging these rules were to be dismissed.

The Advocate General stated that recruitment rules were amended in 2019 after the 2016 rules and that the 2025 rules are the current legal framework. He said, “26,000 jobs were cancelled based on the 2019 rules. At that time, no one challenged those rules. Therefore, the current rules cannot be questioned now.” He further stated that in any recruitment process, the eligibility criteria are determined by the recruiting body, and the SSC was within its rights to assign weightage to teaching experience and other qualifications.

Kalyan Banerjee argued that the High Court’s earlier order had only directed the SSC to resume recruitment but had not specified which set of rules should be followed. He said that under the current circumstances, applying the 2016 rules, including age relaxation provisions, was not practical. SSC submitted that changes were made in accordance with the Supreme Court's order, and the existing rules were framed accordingly.

The new recruitment rules include a written exam of 60 marks (increased from the previous 55), a maximum of 10 marks for academic qualification (reduced from 35), 10 marks for teaching experience, and 10 marks for lecture demonstration. The age limit for applicants has been fixed at 40 years as of January 1, 2025. The petitioners had alleged that SSC was violating Supreme Court directions and demanded adherence to the 2016 framework, but the High Court found no merit in the claims and upheld the new notification.