The division bench of the Calcutta High Court (HC) is scheduled to announce its verdict tomorrow, May 19 at 1 pm, regarding the cancellation of 36,000 jobs. This decision follows the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) challenging the previous ruling by a single-judge bench last week, which resulted in the termination of 36,000 primary government school teachers.
“I hope the High Court will consider the allegations of corruption and disregard for reservation rules when delivering its judgement,” says Achinta Samanta, a 2014 Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) candidate, who has been actively protesting against the recruitment scam in the state.
On May 12, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay ordered the termination of 36,000 out of 42,500 primary teachers appointed in 2016 within state-run schools in West Bengal. The court observed that these teachers lacked proper training and brought forward additional allegations of marks manipulation, violation of reservation rules and the absence of aptitude tests.
"Astonishing to see..."
However, on May 16, the HC issued a revised order reducing the figure to 32,000 instead of 36,000, thereby preserving the jobs of trained teachers. Arnab Ghosh, another 2014 TET candidate, comments on the matter, stating, "It is astonishing to see how many candidates were recruited through backdoors. The list itself demonstrates the flouting of reservation rules."
The cancellation of job appointments, labelled by The Telegraph as the largest in India's history, is expected to create a significant crisis in the state. In light of this, the previous verdict also extended the jobs of these disqualified teachers for four months as para-teachers, allowing the board to utilise this time to fill the resulting vacancies. It has been reported that the re-recruitment of the 36,000 candidates would cost the board Rs 54,00,000.
Justice Gangopadhya, in his ruling, additionally granted permission to the West Bengal government to explore the possibility of recovering the expenses incurred in this recruitment process from former WBBPE President Manik Bhattacharya. It was during Bhattacharya's tenure that these irregularities took place. Currently, Bhattacharya is in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), facing accusations related to recruitment scam cases.
Protests and more protests
Since October 17, job seekers who qualified for the TET in 2014 have been protesting in West Bengal. They have been organising all-night protests and engaging in an indefinite hunger strike to demand immediate recruitment in state-run school. “Unqualified candidates were sent appointment letters through SMS and no merit list was ever published. We have already appeared for the TET interview twice after qualifying, now we want immediate recruitment and we’ll settle for nothing less,” said Achintya Samanta when he spoke with EdexLive in October 2022. Samanta is one of the job-seekers who lost eight years due to this scam and considers this issue the reason behind his current financial instability.
West Bengal is currently undergoing an investigation into its recruitment irregularities, with top Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders, including former Education Minister Partho Chatterjee, in judicial custody. "It is crucial to restore a healthier system in Bengal's education sector and for that to happen, the government must take responsibility and ensure that fair practices are implemented, ensuring that deserving candidates obtain the available jobs,” concludes Samanta.
