Kolkata: The West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) has announced new protocols regarding the preservation of optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets in light of upcoming recruitment for teaching positions in state-run schools. This initiative was revealed in a notification issued on Friday.

The written exams for this recruitment drive are scheduled for the first week of September.

Under the new guidelines, hard copies of the OMR sheets will be kept for a minimum of two years, an increase from the previous one-year retention policy that was in place since the 2016 recruitment cycle. This change follows a Supreme Court ruling last month that annulled the entire 2016 recruitment batch.

Additionally, the WBSSC will maintain scanned copies or mirror images of the OMR sheets on their servers for at least a decade. The validity of the recruitment panel will remain at one year, although the WBSSC retains the option to extend it by six months if deemed necessary.

A representative from the state education department explained that these measures were implemented due to significant lapses identified during court proceedings regarding irregularities in the recruitment of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching positions from the 2016 panel. These issues were first raised in the Calcutta High Court and later escalated to the Supreme Court.

Previously, original OMR sheets were destroyed just one year post-examination, contrary to the established practice of retaining them for a minimum of three years. Furthermore, neither scanned copies nor mirror images were preserved, and the commission had outsourced the evaluation and preservation tasks instead of utilizing its own resources, which were sufficient for the job.

These oversights made it nearly impossible to differentiate between 'genuine' and 'tainted' candidates, leading to the cancellation of the entire recruitment panel by both the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court.