Calcutta HC stays single bench order terminating jobs of 32,000 school teachers

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Friday passed an interim stay on an earlier order terminating the jobs of around 32,000 teachers in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided primary schools till the end of September or until further orders. A single bench on May 12 ordered the cancellation of the appointment of around 32,000 candidates who had not completed training when they were recruited as primary teachers through a selection process in 2016 on the basis of the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) of 2014.

“There shall be an interim stay on termination of jobs till the end of September 2023, or until further orders, whichever is earlier,” a division bench presided by Justice Subrata Talukdar directed.

The termination of jobs without giving a chance of meaningful right of defence to the affected parties prima facie requires judicial intervention, the bench said, while passing its interim order on an appeal by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education and some affected teachers.

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had earlier ordered the cancellation of appointments after which the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) challenged the order.

A single bench had on May 12 ordered the cancellation of appointments of around 32,000 candidates who had not completed teacher training when they were recruited as primary teachers through a selection process in 2016 on the basis of the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) of 2014.

Hearing the matter, Justice Talukar and Justice Supratim Bhattacharya ordered an interim stay.

However, the Division Bench ordered the Board to follow Justice Gangopadhyay’s order to conduct fresh recruitments. The Calcutta High Court directed that everyone will be able to participate in the recruitment process, including the mentioned 32,000 teachers.

The Board has been asked to complete the recruitment process by August and the case will be heard again in September. Justice Gangopadhyay had earlier ordered that these 32,000 teachers will be able to work for the next four months but on the salary of an assistant teacher.

Board president Gautam Pal had said that those 36,000 teachers in service are no longer untrained and that they had completed their training by 2019. He informed the media that the teachers were recruited as per the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) norms.

On the accusation that the aptitude test was not taken, Pal said the Board had submitted an affidavit with regards to this as directed by the court. “As per records, every expert took the aptitude test of the candidates,” he added.