Kolkata: The West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) on Wednesday published the long-pending merit list of 1,982 eligible candidates from the D.El.Ed 2020–2022 batch for appointment as primary teachers, in compliance with a Supreme Court judgment, bringing partial closure to a recruitment process initiated in 2022.
Of the total, the Bengali medium accounts for 1,966 candidates, while the Hindi medium has 13, the Nepali medium one and the Santhali medium two. The merit list includes registration numbers, TET roll numbers, category-wise details and marks awarded under training, TET performance, viva-voce, aptitude or teaching experience, extra-curricular activities and total scores.
The list has been published pursuant to the Supreme Court’s judgment dated April 4, 2025, which granted relief to candidates who were pursuing the Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed) course when the 2022 recruitment notification was issued. Invoking its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, the apex court set aside a division bench order of the Calcutta High Court that had declared the pursuing batch ineligible and directed the Board to complete the recruitment process without further delay.
The 2022 notification had invited applications for 11,765 primary teacher vacancies from TET-qualified candidates, including those who were then pursuing the D.El.Ed course, in line with an earlier single bench order of the High Court. Subsequent litigation, however, led to the exclusion of the pursuing batch, who moved the Supreme Court. After the Supreme Court lifted its interim stay on the recruitment process in January 2024, the WBBPE proceeded with the recruitment of other eligible candidates and appointed 9,934 teachers that year on a conditional basis. However, the status of the 2020–2022 batch remained unresolved until the final verdict last year.
WBBPE president Goutam Pal said the Board had implemented the court’s order while ensuring that no appointments already made were affected. “The Supreme Court allowed the Board to accommodate eligible candidates from the remaining vacancies without terminating anyone who had been appointed,” Pal said.