Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of Calcutta High Court on Monday asked the state primary education board to issue within two days appointment letters to 65 teaching aspirants.
These candidates had emerged as successful in the 2015 Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) following the addition of marks after the board admitted mistakes in some questions.
The notification for the test was issued in 2014 and so it is often referred to as the 2014 TET.
The same court had last week directed the board to give appointment to 185 candidates in government-aided primary schools on the basis of four orders in the last three weeks because of the addition of marks for the same questions.
In another order on Monday, Justice Gangopadhyay said the process to fill 3,929 posts of teachers in primary schools (which remained vacant after the completion of the recruitment process in 2020) should be completed by the primary board within November 7.
Justice Samapti Chatterjee had in October 2018 directed the board to award full marks to candidates who had attempted the questions that the court had declared wrong based on a report by a team from Visva-Bharati.
Since the order was not complied with, Justice Gangopadhyay had in September 2021 ruled that if the petitioners were found eligible after the award of the extra marks, they would have to be appointed immediately.
A school education department official said that since the petitioners moved separately, the court is issuing orders for recruitment in phases.
“The petitioners have been saying that they could not take part in the recruitment process in 2020 because of non-compliance of the directive of Justice Samapti Chatterjee. The court has found merit in the contention and is ordering recruitment in phases,” the official said.
When asked about the court’s order, Goutam Paul, president of the ad hoc committee that has been tasked with running the board, said: “We will comment on this after going through the court’s order.”
The board had last Thursday recommended 185 candidates for appointment as teachers in government-aided primary schools, in compliance with four consecutive orders issued by Justice Gangopadhyay.
After completion of the recruitment process on the basis of the 2014 TET, some candidates who had cracked the written test but did not get jobs moved the court saying 6,000 posts were still vacant in primary schools.
Justice Gangopadhyay following verifications found that a total of 3,929 posts were vacant.