Kathakali Roy v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

12-12-2025 Item No.1 JPD Subrata Bhattacharyya IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA Circuit Bench at Jalpaiguri Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction AR(C) Appellate Side (From the Principal Bench) WPA No.2440 of 2025 Kathakali Roy -vsState of West Bengal & Ors.

Ms. Sumita Shaw, adv.

Mr. Chandni Chowdhury, adv.

Mr. Manoj Kurmi, adv.

Mr. Soumen Chatterjee, adv. ...for the petitioner Mr. Sirsanya Bandopadhyay, SSC Mr. Sandip Das Gupta, adv.

Ms. Mahima Cholera, adv.

Mr. Niket Ojha , adv. ...for the State Mr. Kalyan Bandyopadhyay, sr. adv.

Mr. Arka Kumar Nag, adv.

Mr. Rahul Kumar Singh, adv. ...for the Commission 1.

The petitioner participated in the 2nd SLST, 2025 for recruitment of assistant teachers by submitting application fees meant for SC/ST & PH candidates. She claims that she belongs to the SC category and ought to be treated in the reserved category. The Commission treated her as a General category candidate. She is aggrieved by the same.

2.

Whether the petitioner can be treated as a General category candidate despite applying under the reserved category and paying fees meant for the reserved category, has been decided by the Court on November 27, 2025 in WPA No.26937 of 20-25 (Somnath Pramanik & Ors.

-vs- The State of West Bengal & Ors.).

3.

The Court was of the opinion that the Commission cannot suo motu treat a reserved

category candidate under the General category, despite the candidate's disclosure of being a member of a particular reserved category.

4.

The Court disposed of the writ petition by directing the Commission to treat the candidates in the respective categories that they disclosed in their application form subject to verification of their reservation certificates.

5.

The Commission has brought to the notice of the Court that an appeal has been carried from the judgment passed in the case of Somnath Pramanik (supra) and that the same is under active consideration of the Hon'ble Division Bench.

6.

As the process of credential verification is on, accordingly, the Court is inclined to dispose of the instant writ petition by directing the Commission to treat the petitioner in the reserved category subject to verification of the reservation certificate relied upon by the petitioner.

7.

This order will, however, be subject to any order passed by the Hon'ble Division Bench in MAT No.2115 of 2025 (The West Bengal Central School Service Commission -vs- Somnath Pramanik & Ors.).

8.

The writ petition stands disposed of.

9.

All parties are to act on the server copy of this order duly downloaded from the official website of this Court.

10.

Certified copy of this order, if applied for, shall be made available to the parties.

[Amrita Sinha, J]