A division bench of Calcutta High Court on Friday ordered an interim stay on Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay’s order sacking over 32,000 teachers in government-aided primary schools on the grounds that they did not have a diploma in elementary education.
Justice Gangopadhyay had issued the order on May 12.
The division bench of Justice Subrata Talukdar and Justice Supratim Bhattacharya stayed the order of the single-judge bench till September.
During the intervening period, the teachers will not be treated like para-teachers (who are not regular teachers), as was ordered by Justice Gangopadhyay. The 32,000-odd teachers will draw salary like regular teachers till further orders.
The division bench upheld a part of Justice Gangopadhyay’s order in which he said a fresh panel of candidates has to be drawn up within three months to fill the posts that will fall vacant once the 32,000-odd teachers lose their jobs.
The single-judge bench had also said the 32,000-odd teachers would have to appear in an aptitude test to be conducted by the state primary education as part of the teacher recruitment exercise. These teachers won’t have to write the Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET), which they cracked in 2015.
The division bench has upheld this as well. It was alleged that the primary education board had not conducted any aptitude tests while recruiting these candidates.
TET-qualified candidates have to appear in an interview and an aptitude test to make it to the merit list. Five marks each are allotted for the aptitude test and the interview.
A written order of the division bench was not available till late on Friday.
Justice Gangopadhyay had said in his May 12 order: “The board shall immediately arrange for a recruitment exercise for candidates who were untrained at the time of recruitment (including candidates who have obtained training qualification in the meantime) within a period of 3 (three) months from date only for the candidates who participated in 2016 recruitment process...”
He had ordered that all examinees would have to appear in an interview and an aptitude test and “the whole interview process has to be videographed carefully and preserved”.
Advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, whose juniors are fighting for the petitioners challenging the appointments, said the division bench has upheld the part of Justice Gangopadhyay’s order that said the board will immediately arrange for a recruitment exercise for candidates who were untrained at the time of recruitment.
State primary education board president Goutam Paul said on Friday: “We have yet to get a copy of the order. The board will decide on its course of action after studying the order in detail.”
He had told TV channel ABP Ananda on May 12 that the 32,000-odd teachers had appeared in an interview and an aptitude test.
“In respect of holding of an aptitude test the chairman of Board (Paul) in his report said that aptitude tests were taken, but from the evidence adduced by the interviewers and the candidates it has been proved before this court that no aptitude test was taken…” Justice Gangopadhyay had said in his order.
“Therefore the marks given to the candidates against aptitude test is a wholly illegal and false exercise to hoodwink all concerned including the court,” Justice Gangopadhyay had said in his order last week.
The division bench said in its interim order that it wants to probe the allegations of corruption in recruitments in schools and asked all sides to submit their affidavits.
“We will continue with our hearings,” the bench said.
An official in the school education department said it seems the fate of the 32,000-odd candidates hinges on whether they had appeared in the aptitude test or not.