The Calcutta High Court's single bench judge has ordered the termination of service for 143 primary teachers in West Bengal government-run schools. This decision was made on the grounds that the teachers were found to have obtained their jobs through illegal or unfair means or in exchange for some kind of consideration.
Earlier in 2022, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay ordered the termination of the services of 269 primary teachers on similar grounds. However, these teachers appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the order was issued without giving them a chance to be heard. In response, the Supreme Court directed the same single bench judge to hear the arguments of the 269 teachers and ordered the teachers to file affidavits with the court, as per a report by IANS.
On Wednesday, January 4, 146 teachers submitted their affidavits to Justice Gangopadhyay, the single bench judge. After reviewing these affidavits, the judge ordered the termination of the services of 143 of them and directed the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) to immediately stop paying their salaries.
The court found that two candidates received additional marks due to errors in the question paper for the written test and were therefore able to keep their jobs as primary school teachers.
The arguments of the other candidate will be considered after a further review of his affidavit and other relevant documents. This is the second time that Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay's single-judge bench has ordered the termination of primary teachers' services. On December 23 of last year, the judge also ordered the termination of 53 primary teachers, as reported by IANS.
