In a relief to 32,000 primary school teachers in West Bengal, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday set aside a single bench order that annulled their appointments, and observed that “a group of unsuccessful candidates should not be allowed to damage the entire system”.The bench, comprising justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Reetabrata Kumar Mitra, also said it is not inclined to uphold the single bench order as irregularities have not been proven in all the recruitments, and that termination of services cannot be based only on an ongoing criminal proceeding.
The appointment of the teachers, who were recruited in 2016 through the Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) panel of 2014 by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, was challenged by a group of unsuccessful candidates who alleged recruitment fraud.
The termination of employment after nine years would have a huge impact on the primary teachers and their families, and innocent teachers would also “suffer great ignominy and stigma”, the court said.
The division bench said that the single bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay in the judgment of May 12, 2023, had gone beyond the pleadings and cancelled the appointments made upon a purported finding that no aptitude test was held.