Today, May 19, the division bench of the Calcutta High Court (HC) issued an interim stay order on the single bench verdict delivered by Justice Abhijeet Gangopadhyay the previous week. Justice Gangopadhyay's ruling scrapped 36,000 out of 42,500 jobs of primary government school teachers appointed in 2016 within state-run schools in West Bengal. This decision was subsequently challenged by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) this week.
In his verdict last week, Justice Gangopadhyay had observed that these 36,000 teachers lacked proper training and brought forward additional allegations of marks manipulation, violation of reservation rules and the absence of aptitude tests. Later the court revised the order and reduced the figure to 32,000 on Monday, May 15. “If I open my mouth, it will be a 'political statement'. Jobs have been sold in huge numbers. Some are trying to cover the fish behind vegetables. The court is not guilty,” said the Judge, stated reports.
Today, the division bench, headed by Justice Subrata Talukdar, issued a directive stating, "There shall be an interim stay on job terminations until the end of September 2023 or until further orders, whichever occurs earlier."
The cancellation of job appointments, labelled by The Telegraph as the largest in India's history, was expected to create a significant crisis in the state. In light of this, the previous verdict had 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 had 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.
To recall, West Bengal is currently undergoing an investigation into its recruitment irregularities, with top Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders, including former Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, in judicial custody. Job seekers who qualified Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) in 2014 have been protesting in various parts of West Bengal since October 2022.
