Calcutta High Court orders cancellation of over 30,000 primary teachers' jobs in West Bengal schools

KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Friday ordered cancellation of jobs of a large number of non-trained primary teachers, which may amount to above 30,000, in West Bengal government-sponsored and -aided schools, holding that due procedure was not followed in the recruitment process.

The court, however, directed that these teachers can continue to work for the next four months, but will receive the salary of para teachers. Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay directed that these primary teachers will not be able to work as regular teachers as the due procedure was not followed in the appointments.

Petitioners, who were job aspirants, had moved the high court claiming irregularities in the recruitment process for around 42,500 primary teachers. The court found that improper methods were adopted to recruit a large number of them, who are also untrained, in the said process for primary teachers in 2016 on the basis of the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) of 2014.

The court also directed that fresh recruitment from the 2014 TET candidates has to start within three months. The petitioners' lawyer Tarunjyoti Tiwari had claimed that due reservations for trained and untrained candidates were not followed in the appointment process.

West Bengal Board of Primary Education president Goutam Paul, claiming that there were no irregularities in the recruitment process, said they will take legal steps after receiving a copy of the order. Justice Gangopadhyay has earlier ordered CBI investigations into a number of cases of alleged irregularities in the recruitment of teachers in state-sponsored and –aided schools.