Cal HC's division bench sets aside order terminating appointment of 32,000 primary teachers

A division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday set aside a single bench order that annulled appointments of 32,000 primary school teachers in West Bengal, observing that ''a group of unsuccessful candidates should not be allowed to damage the entire system''.

These teachers were recruited in 2016 through the Teachers' Eligibility Test (TET) by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, and their appointments were challenged by a group of unsuccessful candidates who alleged recruitment fraud.

The bench, comprising justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Reetabrata Kumar Mitra, said it is not inclined to uphold the single bench order as irregularities have not been proven in all the recruitments.

The court maintained that the termination of employment after nine years would have a huge impact on the primary teachers and their families and ruled that ''innocent teachers would also suffer great ignominy and stigma''.

The services of appointees cannot be terminated only on the basis of an ongoing criminal proceeding, the bench further observed.

The verdict brought joy and relief to the in-service teachers who, after the Supreme Court judgment which terminated appointments of nearly 26,000 teachers and non-teaching staff from the SLST 2016 panel earlier this year on grounds of large-scale recruitment corruption, waited with bated breath for the high court judgment.

Calling the judgment a ''triumph of truth'', the teachers expressed gratitude at the court having ''removed the taint that was smeared on them for the past two-and-a-half years'' and allowing them to continue in service ''with their head held high''.

The judgment, passed barely months ahead of the upcoming state polls, was clearly a shot in the arm for the TMC-led West Bengal government, which is fighting perceptions of large-scale corruption, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee calling the verdict a ''humanitarian relief'' for thousands of families.

''The verdict has proved that our chief minister has always stood by our teachers and will continue doing so,'' state education minister Bratya Basu said.

''For the past five years, the education board had been plagued by certain attacks and subjected to motivated campaigns. As the clock is showing signs of turning full cycle, we are hopeful the slur will go away, and we will face the next assembly polls with our heads held high,'' he added.

A section of aggrieved candidates, who had originally moved court alleging recruitment irregularities, expressed their intentions to move Supreme Court, challenging the division bench order.

The high court on Wednesday said the CBI, which was directed to investigate the matter, had initially identified 264 appointments in which irregularities took place in the form of granting an additional mark.

The court observed that the probe agency has so far found no evidence that the mark was granted under instructions of external entities.

Besides the identified candidates, the names of another 96 teachers came under the agency's scanner, whose jobs were subsequently reinstated under a Supreme Court order.

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

A group of aggrieved candidates had moved the single bench, challenging the recruitment process over alleged irregularities. Their lawyers sought a stay on the operation of the division bench's judgment, but it was refused.

A single bench of then Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had terminated the appointments of these 32,000 primary teachers on May 12, 2023, after petitioners had alleged that the primary education board 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 towards the possibility of recruitment of a section of teachers without holding their mandatory aptitude test, which, the division bench maintained, the probe agency is yet to back up with concrete evidence.

Responding to the division bench judgment, BJP spokesperson and counsel for some of the petitioners in the case, Tarunjyoti Tewari, said the verdict has raised new doubts among job aspirants who have been alleging corruption in the recruitment process for years.

''What needs to be said about the Calcutta High Court order will be said in the Supreme Court,'' Tewari wrote on X.

''Today's verdict has created fresh questions in the minds of Bengal's unemployed youth. Corruption has been given institutional legitimacy,'' he added.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)