Calcutta HC overturns order that canceled 32,000 teachers' appointments
Calcutta HC overturns order that canceled 32,000 teachers' appointments
The Calcutta High Court has reversed a single bench order that canceled the appointments of around 32,000 primary teachers in West Bengal.
The decision was taken by a division bench of Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Reetobroto Kumar Mitra.
The bench overturned a 2023 order by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, now a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha member, which had canceled the appointments.
The teachers were recruited through the 2014 Teachers' Eligibility Test (TET) by West Bengal Board of Primary Education.
What court said
"There must have been a possibility of systemic malice, assessment of data doesn't point to the same... A group of unsuccessful candidates cannot be allowed to damage the entire system. A job taken away after nine years of service would cause insurmountable difficulty," the bench held.
"Service cannot also be terminated on the basis of an ongoing criminal proceeding," it concluded.
Justice Gangopadhyay's order annulled by division bench
Justice Gangopadhyay's order had canceled the appointments due to alleged irregularities in the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) recruitment process in 2014.
The process had seen 42,500 primary teachers appointed but was marred by allegations of cash-for-jobs scams.
The single bench had ordered a fresh recruitment process within three months, which was stayed by a division bench led by Justice Subrata Talukdar and Justice Supratim Bhattacharya.
The two-judge bench granted the state six months to complete a fresh recruitment process.
SC upheld the stay on appointments to 32,000 posts
The state subsequently appealed to the Supreme Court against the decision.
The Supreme Court upheld the stay on appointments to 32,000 posts and sent the matter to the high court for a final hearing.
The hearing was concluded on November 12 by a division bench composed of Justice Chakraborty and Justice Kumar Mitra.