Kolkata, Jun 13 (IANS): A Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday imposed a penalty on West Bengal Madrasah Service Commission (WBMSC) for delaying the results of the recruitment examination for non-teaching staff by 13 years.

Imposing a penalty of Rs 200,000 on Thursday, the Division Bench of Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Prasenjit Biswas directed the WBMSC authorities to deposit the sum with the legal services department of the Calcutta High Court.

The court also directed the WBMSC authorities to complete the recruitment process for 3,000 vacancies within the next three months.

To recall, the preliminary examination for recruitment of non-teaching staff in the Group-D category for madrasas in the state was conducted in 2010 and in 2011 there was a written examination.

However, the results were not announced in the last 13 years and no recruitments were made.

Some of the candidates who had appeared for the examination approached the Calcutta High Court seeking immediate publication of results.

In 2019, the Calcutta High Court’s Single- Judge Bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha ordered that vacant posts should be filled within 14 days.

However, the WBMSC authorities challenged the order at the Division Bench.

Although the Division Bench upheld the order of the Single-Judge, the WBMSC sought extension and after extension on various grounds and did not announce the results.

Finally on Thursday, the Division Bench made it clear that the recruitment process would have to be completed within the next three months and no further extension beyond that would be allowed.

The penalty was imposed for the inability to complete the recruitment process within the deadlines fixed by the court.