The Supreme Court on Wednesday sent a clear message to the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) litigants: the first stop for all fresh grievances will now be the Calcutta High Court. During a brief but intense hearing, the bench indicated that Delhi would no longer micromanage the lingering disputes around the controversial teacher recruitment scam. The atmosphere in Court No. 11 shifted the moment Justice Sanjay Kumar remarked that the High Court had already “taken up the issue in detail”, hinting that the matter was returning to its natural forum.
Background
The petitioners, represented by senior advocate Dr. Menaka Guruswamy, had approached the Supreme Court challenging aspects of the earlier Calcutta High Court judgment dated 14 July 2025 in WPA 14723/2025. Their primary concern was whether the State had obeyed the directions issued in the landmark State of West Bengal vs Baishakhi Bhattacharyya (Chatterjee) ruling, which had mandated a strict clean-up of the tainted recruitment lists.
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However, the bench noted an important development: a fresh writ-WPA 26288/2025-was already being actively heard by a Calcutta High Court judge, who had flagged multiple issues across four orders issued earlier this month. This shifted the centre of gravity back to Kolkata.
Court’s Observations
The bench observed, “Since a learned Judge of the High Court has taken up that issue, it is appropriate that the High Court, being the court of first instance, undertakes the exercise.”
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The judges stressed that their role was limited to checking whether earlier Supreme Court directions had been followed. With the High Court already digging into that question, any parallel inquiry in Delhi would create needless overlap.
In a telling remark that stirred murmurs across the courtroom, the bench added that the High Court must ensure that “none of the tainted candidates are permitted to slip through… be it on any pretext.”
The Court also ordered that the complete list of tainted candidates be put in the public domain, so ordinary citizens and affected aspirants could scrutinise it themselves.
Further, the bench clarified that untainted candidates-those who had already cleared earlier rounds-must not be harmed merely because new rules (the 2025 selection rules for Assistant Teacher posts) have since come into force. This reassurance seemed to comfort several young candidates present during the hearing.
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Decision
With these directions, the Supreme Court disposed of the special leave petition, granting liberty to all petitioners to approach the High Court again for any lawful grievance. The Court emphasised that the Calcutta High Court must examine everything independently and not be influenced by observations made in previous Supreme Court orders linked to the Baishakhi Bhattacharyya case. Pending applications were also closed. The matter ended with the bench stating that the real scrutiny must now happen in the High Court itself.
Case Title: Bejoy Biswas & Others vs. The State of West Bengal & Others
Case No.: SLP (C) No. 23784/2025
Case Type: Special Leave Petition (Civil)
Decision Date: 26 November 2025
