The Calcutta High Court on Friday struck down appointments of a staggering 36,000 primary teachers in schools of Bengal as part of its ongoing hearings on the cash-for-jobs scam in the state in what seems to be the largest one-time appointment cancellation in the history of Independent India.

The appointments were cancelled on grounds that the teachers lacked the necessary training which was mandatory in the 2014 Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) based on which the candidates were recruited.

Manipulations are also likely to have taken place in the final marks weightage given for appointments to untrained candidates by assigning fictitious marks in aptitude tests that were allegedly never held, the court observed.

The disqualified teachers were recruited by the state Primary Education Board in 2016 and are engaged in jobs since the 2016-17 academic year.

In its bid to pre-empt a possible crisis and utter chaos in primary education across schools in Bengal on account of the sudden creation of such a large vacancy, the court granted a job extension of four months to the disqualified teachers and directed the Board to complete the process of filling up those vacancies within the next three months.

During the course of their extension, the disqualified teachers would only be considered as para-teachers and their remunerations and perks would be fixed as such instead of what they enjoyed as full-time primary teachers, the court directed.

The court, however, retained some 6,500 primary teachers who were also recruited during the same period but who had the necessary training at the time of their appointments. The disqualified teachers were allegedly asked by their recruiting authorities to complete the training within years of joining their services.

It could not be ascertained, though, whether the untrained teachers in question completed the training during the course of their service.

Passing the unprecedented order, the Bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay also allowed the Bengal government to consider extracting the cost of re-recruitment to fill these vacancies from former Primary Education Board president Manik Bhattacharya, during whose tenure these irregularities allegedly took place, if it deemed fit.

It is estimated that the re-recruitment process of 36,000 candidates would cost the Board Rs 54 lakhs.

Bhattacharya, a Trinamul Congress MLA and one of the prime accused in the recruitment scam cases, has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate and is currently in jail.

Gangopadhyay passed his order after hearing a petition moved by Priyanka Naskar and another 140 petitioners who prayed that untrained teachers were illegally recruited by the Board bypassing those who possessed the necessary training. Petitioners alleged that all rules and regulations of the Board concerning selection of candidates were thrown out of the window. Optical Marks Recognition (OMR) sheets were tampered with, reservation norms were flouted and fictional marks awarded in aptitude tests that were never held.

The judge also reached his verdict based on his closed-door in-camera examination of multiple interviewers who conducted the interviews of the qualified candidates in TET 2015 and was reportedly told that the mandatory Aptitude Test was also bypassed for most candidates.

Responding to the court order, Goutam Pal, Primary Education Board president, said: “We are seeking legal advice on the order passed by the court. We will take appropriate steps at an appropriate time. We will challenge this order before a higher Bench since we believe none of the teachers who are employed currently are untrained.”

“The Board cannot deny responsibility for so many people losing their jobs at one go. We assure the teachers in question that we will fight this out in court.”

Some 12 lakh candidates appeared for the 2014 TET which took place in October 2015. Some 1.25 lakh examinees passed the test and 42,500 candidates were appointed by the Board based on their final marks weightage.

Of the total 50 marks weightage for final selection, 20 marks were awarded to training, 10 marks for Higher Secondary exam results and 5 marks each for Secondary exam, TET exam, aptitude test and interview performance.

The judge observed that the corruption was likely to have been designed by former board president of 10 years, Manik Bhattacharya, who headed the recruitment process. Based on this assessment, the court left an option open for the Board to extract the cost of fresh recruitment from Bhattacharya’s own pocket.

The BJP called the judgment historic. “The sheer number of appointment cancellations shows the depth and extent of this corruption in the education sector facilitated by the Mamata Banerjee government. Judge Gangopadhyay has shown a lot of courage in exposing this government,” said Dilip Ghosh, party vice president.