Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court is set to hear on May 7 the appeals by West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) and others challenging the termination of around 32,000 jobs of primary school teachers.
The bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Reetobroto Kumar Mitra on Monday directed all parties to keep the case paperbook ready for the next
hearing on May 7. Advocate General Kishore Dutta, appearing for WBBPE, stated that the soft copy of the paper book in the matter will be supplied to any of the parties in the appeals on request. A section of teachers, who have been serving since February 2017, are also among the appellants in the matter, their counsel Pratik Dhar submitted before the court. The counsel said they are yet to receive the copy of the case details and claimed that some documents relied upon by the single bench in passing the order of cancelling services of 32,000 teachers were not revealed to the parties in the matter. Appearing for a section of recruited teachers, counsel Kalyan Banerjee claimed that the intention of the unsuccessful candidates, who had challenged the recruitment process before the single bench, was that the jobs of all those who were appointed be terminated.
He submitted before the division bench that if documents by the single bench in passing the order of cancellation of 32,000 jobs were not revealed to the parties in the matter then the judgment of the single bench should be set aside on that score itself. A single bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had on May 12, 2023, ordered the cancellation of the appointment of around 32,000 candidates, who had not completed the teachers’ training course when they were recruited as primary teachers through a selection process in 2016 on the basis of Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) of 2014. The primary education board and others appealed against the single bench judgment.
The single bench had directed for a fresh selection process to be initiated. A division bench stayed the termination of service of the teachers in an interim order.
The matter, thereafter, went to the Supreme Court, which sent it back to the high court for hearing of the appeals.