High Court Division Bench stays Justice Gangopadhyay’s order

The Division Bench of Calcutta High Court on Wednesday ordered a stay on the removal of the principal of Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Law College Sunanda Bhattacharya Goenka.

Goenka and another professor Achina Kundu were removed by the Single Bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay for allegedly not fulfilling the criteria of the University Grant Commission (UGC).

The Bench had further engaged lawyer Arka Kumar Nag to visit the college and to put the principal’s chamber under lock and key.

Justice Gangopadhyay had also restrained Sunanda and Achina from entering the college premises from October 6.

The Division Bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Rai Chattopadhyay heard the appeal petition by the removed principal on Tuesday and on Wednesday ordered the stay. But the Division Bench upheld Justice Gangopadhyay’s direction for the submission of an affidavit stating the qualification of the principal.

The Single Bench had also directed that if the two persons are able to satisfy the court about their qualifications, they will be reinstated. According to a news agency, the Division Bench further directed Sunanda and Achina to appear at the college on Thursday, and Nag was directed to unlock the chamber at 10 am.

It was alleged that despite Sunanda not being National Eligibility Test (NET) or State Level Eligibility Test (SLET) qualified she was appointed as the principal.

According to a news agency, the former president of the state primary education board Manik Bhattacharya who was arrested by the CBI in October had headed the college. Bhattacharya was arrested in connection with the alleged irregularities in the teacher recruitment in the government-aided primary schools.

Earlier, the Single Bench had appointed teacher-in-charge of the College Md Maazul Haque as the officiating principal till further orders. The court had also directed Nag to run the college administration in the meantime.

Meanwhile, Justice Amrita Sinha on Tuesday directed the West Bengal Board of Primary Education to take steps to revoke the recommendation for issuance of appointment letters of 94 candidates, who according to the Board did not qualify in TET 2014 and were ineligible to be appointed.

In the 94 vacancies created, the Board is directed to recommend the names of the candidates as appearing in the merit list published by the Board, Justice Sinha directed. The Board was further directed to explore the possibility of granting one opportunity to the unsuccessful candidates for appearing in the future recruitment process that may be conducted for filling up vacancies following 2016 Rules and by condoning the age bar.