Calcutta High Court's Division Bench Stays Order Terminating Jobs Of 32,000 School Teachers

A division bench of the Calcutta Court on Friday passed an interim stay on an order directing termination of 32,000 jobs of school teachers.

Calcutta High Court's Division Bench Stays Order Terminating Jobs Of 32,000 School Teachers

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The Calcutta High Court passed an interim stay on Friday on order passed earlier regarding the termination of around 32,000 teachers in West Bengal government-sponsored and -aided primary schools till the end of September or until further orders. A single bench on May 12 which was led by Justice Abhijit Ganguly ordered the termination of the appointment of around 32,000 candidates who hadn't completed their teacher training at the time when they were recruited as primary teachers through a selection process in 2016 based on the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) of 2014.

A division bench presided by Justice Subrata Talukdar remarked that "There shall be an interim stay on termination of jobs till the end of September 2023, or until further orders, whichever is earlier," reported news agency PTI

The bench co-headed by Justice Supratim Bhattacharya while passing its interim order on an appeal filed by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education and some affected teachers said that the termination of jobs without giving the affected parties a meaningful right to defend prima facie required judicial intervention. 

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had earlier ordered the cancellation of the appointment while observing that none of these 36,000 teachers had gone through proper training for getting recruited as primary teachers and they got recruited without appearing for the compulsory aptitude tests.

However, Justice Ganguly ordered that these 36,000 primary teachers will be able to attend their respective schools for the next four months, and during that period, they will be entitled to the salary of para-teachers instead of that of regular teachers.

With the interim stay in place, the terminated teachers can continue their jobs until the end of September 2023 or until further orders are issued. The affected teachers now have an opportunity to present their case before the court. The final outcome of this legal fued will determine the fate of 32,000 teachers.