The Supreme Court on Friday set aside an interim order of the Calcutta High Court that directed the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) to conduct a fresh selection exercise for 32,000 teacher posts before the end of August 2023.
Justices JK Maheshwari and KV Viswanathan clarified that their decision did not comment on the merits of the case. The bench noted that the High Court’s single judge had issued the initial order without hearing the teachers or their representatives. Consequently, the Supreme Court concluded that the division bench’s order, which upheld the single judge’s direction, was not justified and overturned it.
Additionally, the Supreme Court instructed the High Court to expedite the hearing of the case related to the school jobs for cash scam. The appeal in the Supreme Court was against a Calcutta High Court order from May 19, which had stayed the single judge’s decision to set aside the appointment of 32,000 teachers in West Bengal. The division bench had stayed the order but maintained that the Board should conduct a fresh selection exercise as directed by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay before the end of August 2023.
During the Supreme Court hearing, the counsel representing the terminated teachers raised concerns that they were not heard and were not provided with any interim protection. On May 12, Justice Gangopadhyay cancelled the appointments of the teachers due to irregularities in the recruitment process known as the school jobs for cash scam. The single judge observed that “untrained” candidates with lower scores in the Teachers Eligibility Test were appointed, possibly due to extra or maximum marks given in aptitude tests that were only conducted on paper.
The judge also found that the selection committee was not constituted as per Recruitment Rules and that an external agency was involved, violating the established procedures. Consequently, the single judge nullified the appointments of all 32,000 candidates who were found to be untrained during the 2016 recruitment process.
