Bengal SSC Seeks Legal Opinion on Revised OBC Reservation Norms for Teacher Recruitment The School Service Commission (SSC) in West Bengal is seeking legal clarification on whether the state government’s decision to reduce the Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation quota from 17% to 7% will apply to teacher recruitment processes. This comes after the backward classes welfare department issued a notification on May 18, stating that the 7% reservation for 66 classes would now apply to "posts and services under the Bengal government." The move has created uncertainty among candidates who had previously benefited from the higher reservation rates. The SSC had been following the 17% reservation framework, which allocated 10% for OBC-A and 7% for OBC-B, covering 140 classes and sub-castes, during the ongoing recruitment of assistant teachers. However, the department’s May 18 notification withdrew all previous approvals for the 17% reservation, effective immediately. This reversal has prompted the SSC to seek legal advice on the applicability of the new norms. The controversy stems from the Trinamool Congress government’s decision to implement the 2010 OBC reservation norms, which reduced the quota to 7%. This change followed the termination of 17,209 teachers in April 2025, as courts invalidated the 2016 recruitment process due to irregularities. The SSC conducted fresh exams in September 2025 to fill the vacancies, with counseling for higher secondary appointments starting in January for 12,514 posts. Additionally, the commission faces the challenge of recruiting 25,314 teachers at the secondary level. The Supreme Court granted the SSC an extension in December 2025, directing the completion of the hiring process by August 31, 2026.#west_bengal #trinamool_congress #supreme_court #school_service_commission #backward_classes_welfare_department
Bengal: EC exempts SSC officials from Assembly election duty The Election Commission of India has exempted officials of the School Service Commission (SSC) from participating in Assembly election-related duties, ensuring the ongoing teacher recruitment process in Bengal is not disrupted. This decision came after the SSC, which was managing the recruitment of teachers and non-teaching staff for classes 9 to 12, faced a staffing crisis due to the deployment of 24 of its employees for polling work. The move was announced on April 1, following a legal battle that had been ongoing since March 25. The SSC had approached the Calcutta High Court, seeking relief from the Election Commission’s directive to deploy its staff for election duties. The commission had initially assigned 24 SSC officials as polling officers on March 1, leaving only 11 staff members to handle the recruitment process. The SSC’s lawyer argued that this shortage would make it impossible to meet the Supreme Court’s deadline of August 31, 2026, to complete the recruitment of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching workers whose jobs had been canceled in April 2025 due to a corruption scandal. The SSC had previously requested the bench of Justice Krishna Rao of the Calcutta High Court to recognize its autonomy and assert that its staff could not be diverted for election work. The commission had stated that 35 employees of the SSC were handling both its administrative tasks and the recruitment process. However, the deployment of 24 of them for polling duties left only 11 staff to manage the recruitment, which included conducting interviews for thousands of positions. The Supreme Court had ordered the SSC to restart the recruitment process after invalidating the previous appointments, which were deemed corrupt.#supreme_court_of_india #election_commission_of_india #calcutta_high_court #school_service_commission #krishna_rao
