Division bench of Cal HC sets aside order terminating appointment of 32,000 primary teachers

On Wednesday, December 3, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court set aside the single bench order that had canceled the appointments of 32,000 primary school teachers in West Bengal.

These teachers were recruited in 2016 by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education through the 2014 Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) panel.

A bench of Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Ritabrata Kumar Mitra said it was not inclined to uphold the single judge order as irregularities in all the recruitments had not been proven.

The court said that terminating employment after nine years would have a huge impact on primary teachers and their families.

It said the CBI, which was directed to investigate the case by the High Court, had initially identified 264 appointments in which irregularities occurred in the form of awarding of extra one mark.

The court said that the investigating agency has so far not found any evidence that this mark was given under the instructions of external organizations.

Apart from the identified candidates, names of another 96 teachers came under the agency’s scanner, whose jobs were later restored under the Supreme Court order.

The court said that the above evidence does not constitute sufficient grounds to cancel the entire selection process.

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A group of aggrieved candidates had approached the single bench challenging the recruitment process over alleged irregularities. His lawyers sought a stay on the implementation of the division bench’s decision, but this was rejected.

A single bench of then Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had quashed the appointments of these 32,000 primary teachers on May 12, 2023, as the petitioners had alleged that the Board of Primary Education had committed fraud in the selection process and did not follow the rules for recruitment of primary teachers in state government-run and aided primary schools.

In its order, the single bench had pointed out the possibility of recruitment of a section of teachers without conducting the mandatory qualifying examination, to which the division bench said the investigating agency was yet to find concrete evidence.