The high court has said that it will not be fair to stop the entire process of recruitment of 13,000 teachers at the upper primary level because of a petition moved by 26 aggrieved candidates.
Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty, who is heading the division bench that is hearing the matter, said the appointment process in government-aided upper primary schools (for Classes VI to VIII) could be started keeping 26 posts vacant for the petitioners.
The judge sought to know from the lawyers present in his courtroom whether this mechanism would pose any challenge.
He also told the school service commission to come up with the exact number of petitioners when the case would be heard next on February 28.
The court has yet to issue a formal order.
The recruitment process at the upper primary level has remained stalled for the past seven years owing to a series of petitions in various courts.
The commission held the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) in 2015. The results of the written tests were declared in 2016.
The recruitment has yet to happen.
On October 18, 2023, the commission had announced that they would counsel the successful candidates (TET- qualified) following an order of the court. But the commission did not issue any recruitment letter as a section of petitioners moved the division bench headed by Justice Soumen Sen alleging anomalies in the screening process.
Lawyer Firdaus Shamim, who has been representing the petitioners, said on Friday there were anomalies in the TET scores and the academic scores awarded to the candidates.
TET-qualified candidates are awarded academic scores based on their performance at the secondary, higher secondary and graduation levels.
“In several cases, candidates who scored less in different levels of screening were called to the counselling, while those who scored more were left out. The rule to be followed for calling candidates to the counselling against vacant posts was not followed,” Shamim alleged.
The case is now being heard by the division bench headed by Justice Chakraborty.
During the hearing, Justice Chakraborty said: “Would it be fair to stall the recruitment process for 13,000 vacancies for a handful of petitioners? The process for giving recommendations should start now.”
Earlier, a re-evaluation by the commission of the OMR sheets of the candidates who had written the test in 2015 had revealed a mismatch of marks in close to 1,000 cases.
A commission official on Friday said: “We subsequently informed the court about the mismatch of marks. These candidates were not called for the counselling. While awarding academic scores, we followed the rules.”
On May 16, 2023, the high court had scrapped the appointment of Bobita Sarkar, who was recruited in a government-aided higher secondary school replacing Ankita Adhikary, daughter of former Trinamul minister Paresh Adhikary, because Bobita had been given more marks than she deserved during the screening conducted by the SSC.
SSC chairman Siddhartha Majumdar said: “We will follow what the court has said.”
An official in the school education department said stalling the recruitment of teachers by filing petitions in court had become a pattern in Bengal.
“The state primary education board held TETs in 2022 and 2023 for recruitment of primary teachers (Classes I to V). But no one has yet beenappointed based on the two tests as the previous recruitment process was stuck because of petitions. If the court allows recruitment in the upper primary schools, this will be a welcome change,” he said.