Calcutta high court cancels appointment of 36,000 primary teachers

The Calcutta high court on Friday cancelled the appointment of 36,000 primary school teachers who were allegedly recruited through manipulations in the recruitment process in 2016 and ordered the West Bengal government to fill up the vacancies within three months, reports Hindustan Times. 

The bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, which cancelled the appointment of 36,000 teachers, said they can continue to work for the next four months but will have to work at the reduced salary of a para teacher.

“In all, 42500 primary teachers were recruited in 2016 out of which the appointments of 36000 teachers have been cancelled. The bench stated that the teachers were appointed without any aptitude test,” said a high court lawyer present during the hearing.

The high court had made it clear back in December 2022 that it would cancel the entire panel of candidates who cracked the Teachers’ Eligibility Test, if they were found guilty.

The Central Bureau of Investigation has probing allegations of corruption in the recruitment of teachers and non-teaching staffers on the orders of the Calcutta high court. The Enforcement Directorate also joined the probe later. Former Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee and former chairman of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education Manik Bhattacharya, are among the people who have been arrested in this case.

Prof Goutam Paul, who was appointed as the new president of West Bengal Primary Education Board in place of Manik Bhattacharya in August 2022, said they will challenge the high court order.

“The board has already started taking legal help and we are going to challenge this order. They were appointed following guidelines of the National Council for Teacher Education. The 36,000 teachers are not untrained anymore. They board has trained all of them on Online Learning Mode by 2019,” said Prof Paul, who was previously pro-vice chancellor of the state-run Kalyani University.