West Bengal SSC scam: Protesters allow SSC chairman to leave office after 40 hours of blockade

40 hours since beginning their sit-in protest and blocking entry and exit in front of the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) office in Kolkata, jobless teachers and education workers finally allowed SSC Chairman Siddhartha Majumdar and other officials to leave on Wednesday morning.

The decision was taken, following discussion with the police, as the chairman is required to be physically present at the Calcutta High Court for a hearing on Wednesday in a case related to the termination of the entire 2016 SSC panel which has resulted in job losses of over 25,000 candidates.

Hundreds of protesters gathered at the SSC office on Monday and refused to leave until the commission published a list separating tainted and untainted candidates and mirror images of OMR sheets of all candidates.

West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu had earlier assured them that the state government would try to publish the list by April 21 (Monday) following due legal measures. When the promised list did not come out on Monday, tensions escalated as protesters clashed with police in an attempt to storm the SSC office.

However, on Tuesday, Basu informed that the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) had declared in an affidavit, during a Supreme Court hearing on April 17, that 17,206 candidates have not been put on the tainted list. He urged these qualified candidates to return to work as directed by the apex court.

A division bench led by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, along with Justice Sanjay Kumar, allowed only teachers who have not been named in the list of tainted candidates to continue working till December 31, 2025, until new appointments are made.

However, the affected teachers said that out of the 17,206 names shared, 15,403 have been identified as eligible. Refusing to get back to work along with ineligible candidates, protesters questioned why they hadn’t been dismissed yet. They also demanded an explanation from the education minister for the missing mirror images of the OMR sheets. 

India