Calcutta High Court upholds dismissal of 59 primary teachers for obtaining appointments through illegal means

The dismissals were originally ordered by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who also ordered a CBI investigation into the issue of irregularities in the appointment process 
File photo only for representational purpose. (Pic credits: Express)
File photo only for representational purpose. (Pic credits: Express)

The Calcutta High Court upheld the dismissal of 59 primary teachers in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided schools for obtaining their appointments through illegal means on Thursday, January 5. This brings the total number of teachers who have lost their jobs due to this issue to 252. The dismissal was originally ordered by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay in an earlier ruling, which included a total of 269 primary teachers, including the 59 individuals mentioned in this report by PTI.

The Supreme Court, upon the request of some of the dismissed teachers, directed the Calcutta High Court to give the 269 individuals an opportunity to be heard. However, after reviewing their submissions in the form of affidavits, Justice Gangopadhyay decided to uphold the dismissal of 59 primary school teachers.

Additionally, the Calcutta High Court has already upheld the dismissal of 192 out of the 269 individuals, who were primary school teachers, after reviewing their submissions in the form of affidavits, as directed by the Supreme Court. Of these 192 teachers, 53 were confirmed to have lost their jobs on a December 23 order and 140 more were confirmed to have lost their jobs on a January 4 order.

CBI Inquiry
In addition, Justice Gangopadhyay ordered a CBI investigation into the issue. The investigation was prompted by severe irregularities in the appointment of teachers by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, as noted on petitions by candidates who alleged that they were denied employment despite passing the Teachers' Eligibility Test (TET) in 2014.

Furthermore, Justice Gangopadhyay also ordered the termination of the jobs of 269 primary teachers who were found to have obtained their positions through manipulation of marks and ranks in the TET results. The petitioners, who appeared before the single bench, claimed that although they took the TET-2014 exam, no list of candidate marks or their corresponding merit positions was ever published. They also alleged that an illegal panel of 273 candidates was created and given an additional mark out of the over 20 lakh candidates who took the TET, as stated in a report by PTI.

It was further claimed that as a result of this additional mark, 269 out of the 273 candidates qualified for the job of teachers and were subsequently appointed.

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