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Journalism of Courage
A DIVISION bench of Calcutta High Court Friday passed an interim stay on an earlier single judge bench order, which terminated the jobs of around 32,000 teachers in West Bengal government-aided primary schools, till the end of September or until further orders, whichever is earlier.
On May 12, the bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had ordered the cancellation of appointment of around 32,000 candidates, who were recruited as primary teachers in 2016 on the basis of the 2014 Teacher Eligibility Test (TET). The bench had also directed the West Bengal Board of Primary Education to conduct a fresh recruitment exercise within three months.
The order came on a writ application filed by some petitioners, who qualified in TET 2014 and participated in the 2016 recruitment process, but did not get the jobs. They had alleged irregularities in the recruitment process.
Passing the interim stay on the termination of jobs Friday, the division bench of Justices Subrata Talukdar and Supratim Bhattacharya, however, said the fresh recruitment process ordered by the single judge bench will continue.
The interim stay came on an appeal file by the West Bengal government and some of the affected teachers. Challenging the single bench order, the teachers said the termination of jobs without giving the affected parties a meaningful right to defend prima facie required judicial intervention. After hearing the matter, the division bench ordered, “There shall be an interim stay on termination of jobs till the end of September 2023, or until further orders, whichever is earlier.”
The court said the petitioners before the single bench had accrued a cause of action with the discovery of fresh materials by the board. As a result, it said, the single bench was within its jurisdiction to inquire into the aspects connected with the discovery of the fresh materials.
It said the single bench, however, had a duty to extend the right of hearing to the appointees, who are the appellants before the division bench. “It is trite that justice delayed is justice denied, and conversely, justice hurried is justice buried,” the division bench said.
Passing the interim stay, the court directed that the matter will be heard again in the first week of September. It directed the parties to exchange affidavits within eight weeks, with the first four weeks being for affidavits in opposition to the appeal and the next four weeks for affidavits in reply to those.
On May 12, while ordering termination of their jobs, Justice Ganguly had said that these teachers will continue to work for next four months but will get a salary equivalent to para-teachers. After Friday’s order, these teachers will get normal salaries up to the end of September. With PTI
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