Calcutta HC refuses stay on termination of 36,000 primary teachers

Kolkata, May 16 (IANS) The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday refused to put an interim stay on the earlier order of its single-judge bench terminating the services of 36,000 primary teachers in West Bengal.

The hearing in the matter will continue in the second half on Wednesday.

A division bench of Justice Subrata Talukar and Justice Supratim Bhattacharya observed that the single-judge bench order by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay has highlighted certain hard realities in his verdict.

"The single-judge bench has not thrown the terminated primary teachers in front of wolves. Rather it has kept them within a system, so that they can get jobs in future. What is the problem with getting jobs after appearing in a recruitment examination?" Justice Talukdar questioned.

The WBBPE had challenged the single-judge bench's observation that these primary teachers were recruited without proper training. According to it, all the primary teachers recruited in 2016 received post-job training in the open and distance learning (ODL) mode.

In his order on Friday, Justice Gangopadhyay also directed the WBBPE to fill up the vacancies arising from the termination of services within the next three months.

He had held Trinamool Congress legislator and former WBBPE President Manik Bhattacharya responsible for the irregularity and observed that if the WBBPE wants, it can recover the cost of the process of filling up the vacancies from Bhattacharya, who is currently in judicial custody because of his alleged involvement in the scam.

However, Justice Gangopadhyay directed that these 36,000 primary teachers will be able to attend their respective schools for the next four months and during which they will be paid the salary of para-teachers instead of that for regular teachers.

If any candidate among these 36,000 completes the requisite training in the interim period, he/she will be eligible for appearing for examinations in the next recruitment phase.