A view of the Calcutta High Court in Kolkata. , Photo Credit: Sushant Petronobish
The Calcutta High Court on Friday granted an interim stay a pre order To eliminate about 32,000 primary teachers in West Bengal by September 2023 or until further orders, whichever is earlier. Earlier this month, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had directed that around 36,000 teachers be terminated. Later, the number was revised to 32,000.
A division bench of Justice Subrata Talukdar and Justice Supratim Bhattacharya observed that termination of jobs without giving the affected parties an opportunity of a meaningful right of redress required judicial intervention. Reading out the operative part of the order, Justice Talukdar observed that “justice delayed is justice denied, but justice hastened is justice buried”.
The bench ordered that the board, however, conduct the selection exercise as directed by a single bench within three months – by the end of August.
Read this also | west bengal recruitment scam
relief to the state government
The development has come as a big relief to the state government, which is facing the heat after Justice Gangopadhyay’s May 12 order. 2016 recruitment process conducted by the board for the post of primary teachers have been canceled For various reasons as detailed above,” Justice Gangopadhyay said in the order. He had ordered that these primary teachers would be allowed to work in the respective institutions for four months on remuneration equivalent to that of a para teacher of the primary school where they are working now.
The development assumes significance at a time when a recruitment scam has rocked the politics of the state. Three Trinamool Congress MLAs, including a former education minister, as well as several officials of the state education department are behind bars for their alleged involvement in the scam.