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Synopsis

The Calcutta High Court on Monday allowed the West Bengal Board of Primary Education to file an appeal against an order dated May 12, 2023, passed by Justice Gangopadhyay that annulled the appointment of over 36,000 primary teachers in State government-sponsored and aided schools.

According to a report in The Hindu, Advocate Lakshmi Gupta, counsel for the board brought up the matter before a Division Bench presided by Justice Subrata Talukdar.

The counsel sought permission to challenge May 12 order of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay.

The division bench of Justices Subrata Talukdar and Supratim Bhattacharya allowed the primary education board to file an appeal.

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay recently ordered the cancellation of the appointments of around 36,000 candidates who were untrained at the time of their employment as elementary teachers in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided schools because proper procedure was not followed in the appointment process.

In his order, he observed that corruption of this magnitude was never known in the State of West Bengal.

Justice Gangopadhyay passed the order a writ petition moved by 140 petitioners who qualified in the Teacher Eligibility Test 2014 (TET 2014), participated in the 2016 recruiting process, and was summoned for interviews but were not appointed.

The court in the earlier order had directed that the services of the presently employed candidates who will not succeed in the selection process will be “terminated."

The court stated that if any candidate who appeared in the 2016 recruitment process has crossed the age bar in the meantime or will cross the age bar within three months from the date, will be allowed to take part in the recruitment exercise. Crossing the age bar now will not create any impediment for them to participate and get selected in the recruitment process, the court held.

The court also noted that despite the fact that Rule 7 of the West Bengal Board of Primary School Teachers Recruitment Rules of 2016 requires the formation of a selection committee, no such committee was formed for the purpose of selecting eligible candidates and preparing a panel of such candidates for teacher appointment.