The high court on Monday asked the state school service commission to submit within 24 hours a “merit list” it claimed to have published for the appointment of assistant teachers for classes IX and X in state-aided schools.

The petitioners, who had appeared in the selection test but failed to make the cut, submitted that what the commission had published was just a list of names and not a merit list.

A merit list, the petitioners submitted, must mention the score against each candidate’s name. The commission’s list, they said, does not cite the marks of the candidates.

Justice Rajasekhar Mantha, who was hearing a contempt-of-court plea filed by the petitioners, said the commission secretary “should be sent to jail” if he failed to “satisfy the court” that the list that had been published was indeed a “merit list”.

“The SSC will have to produce the merit list it claims to have published in the court by Tuesday. If the court finds that the list you have published is merely a panel of candidates, the court will send SSC officials to jail,” Justice Mantha told the secretary.

Justice Mantha had earlier directed that the chairman or secretary of the commission appear in the court and state why contempt proceedings would not be drawn against them for not carrying out an order to publish the merit list before preparing a panel of selected candidates.

On Monday, the secretary said the panel had carried out the court’s directive and the list that had been published was prepared according to the marks of the candidates.

Asish Chowdhury, the lawyer who appeared for the petitioner candidates, opposed the secretary’s claim and said: “The list that has been published is not a merit list. It is merely a list of names.”

Justice Mantha then asked the secretary why wasn’t the candidates informed individually about their ranks.

At one point, the secretary told the court that it might not be possible to table the merit list within Tuesday.

But the judge said: “A copy of the merit list must be in your computer. What is the problem in bringing a copy of it to the court on Tuesday?”

The school service commission had conducted the selection test in 2016 and published the results in March 2018.

After the publication of the results, some aspiring candidates whose names did not figure on the list moved the high court alleging that the commission had started the process of appointing assistant teachers without publishing a merit list.

Responding to the petition, Justice Mantha had on September 19, 2018, asked the SSC to publish the merit list.

The order was not carried out, following which the petitioners had moved a contempt petition.