Mita Mukherjee

The Supreme Court on Friday set aside the interim order of Calcutta High Court that directed the West Bengal Board of Primary Education to conduct fresh selection for 32,000 teacher posts in state-aided and sponsored schools before the end of August 2023.

The division bench of J.K. Maheswari and Justice K.V. Viswanathan also requested the Calcutta High Court to expedite the hearing regarding the school jobs for cash scam at the earliest.

“Considering the fact that this is a matter relating to selection and appointment of large numbers of assistant teachers, we hope and trust that such controversy ought to be decided at the earliest. Therefore, we request the high court to expedite the hearing of the writ petitions at the earliest,” the Supreme Court said on Friday.

 The petition was filed before the Supreme Court against the order of the division bench of the Calcutta High Court that had stayed the termination of 32,000 teachers but had directed fresh selection to all the 32,000 posts.

  A single bench of Calcutta High Court had earlier ordered termination of the 32,000 teachers and said that the selection would have to be conducted afresh within three months.

The petitioners had said in their appeal to the Supreme Court that though interim relief was granted to the teachers by the stay order regarding their termination as they were not party to the proceedings, the direction regarding holding fresh selection was also not proper.

The apex court passed the order on Friday after hearing a number of senior lawyers for the Bengal government, the state primary board and some affected candidates who complained that a division bench of Calcutta High Court had passed the order for fresh recruitment without hearing their views.

The state primary board and the state government submitted before the top court that the process of calling 32,000 teachers for selection and holding their interviews within the said time frame would not be possible and would require huge expenditure.

“Having heard the learned counsel, and without producing any opinion on merits, we are impressed by the submission that a single judge passed the order without hearing the teachers or their representatives. Division bench direction is not justified. Therefore, we set aside the division bench interim order to the extent of conducting the fresh exercise. The same is subject to the final outcome of the writ appeal…. Liberty to raise all contentions is left open,” the order said.

The single bench of Calcutta High Court had cancelled the appointment of nearly 32,000 teachers who were recruited by the state primary education board in 2016. Their appointments were cancelled as they had not completed the required teacher training programme.

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the single bench of Calcutta High Court had also asked the state primary board to organize a fresh recruitment process within three months but only for those candidates who participated in the 2016. No new candidate should be allowed, the single bench had said.

The Calcutta High Court division bench of Justices Subrata Talukdar and Supratim Bhattacharya stayed a part of the order of the single bench regarding the dismissal of the teachers, till September.

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