The high court on Friday asked the president of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, who appeared in person, why there was a delay in issuing certificates to successful candidates who appeared in the 2015 Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET).
Gautam Paul, president of the ad hoc committee constituted to run the board, appeared before Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay and blamed lack of funds for the delay.
The judge did not like the excuse. He said: “The board has funds to spend crores in fighting cases at the Supreme Court (against the orders of the lower court). Then why are you saying that the board is facing a financial crunch?”
Paul later told The Telegraph: “The TET certificates would be issued in April.”
The guidelines of the NCTE (National Council for Teachers’ Education) say: “The appropriate government conducting the test shall award a TET certificate to all candidates. The certificate should contain the name and address of the candidate, date of birth, registration, marks obtained in each paper... The validity period of TET qualifying certificate for appointment will be decided by the appropriate government...”
The test was held in 2015 following notification in 2014.
Sudipto Dasgupta, a lawyer representing petitioners who appeared in TET, said the certificate should have been issued immediately after the results were published in September 2016.
“Since then there have been several court orders for the certificates to be issued. In early November last year, Justice Gangopadhyay also advised the board’s counsel to immediately arrange a meeting with the counsel for the petitioners and find a way. But the certificates were not issued,” Dasgupta said.
The petitioners alleged that not issuing the certificates had been a gap through which recruitment-related irregularities were conducted during the tenure of the previous board president, Manik Bhattacharya.
On December 6 last year, Justice Gangopadhyay said he would, “if necessary”, cancel the entire panel of candidates who had cracked the 2014 TET for primary schools if it was found that they had been recruited illegally.
If such an order is passed, the appointment of 42,000-odd teachers in government-aided primary schools would stand cancelled.
The CBI arrested Bhattacharya in October 2022 following allegations of irregularities in the recruitment of teachers in government-aided primary schools.
Partha Karmakar, the board’s deputy secretary (academic), said they would issue a notice on the distribution of certificates soon.