Kolkata, April 7 One of the judges of a division bench of Calcutta High Court, on Monday, recused from hearing the case on irregularities in recruitments of primary teachers in state-run schools in West Bengal.
The fate of around 32,000 primary teachers appointed by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, who are attached to different state-run schools in the state, is at stake in the case.
The matter was supposed to be heard on Monday afternoon at Calcutta High Court’s division bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Smita Das on Monday. However, the hearing could not happen as Justice Sen recused himself from hearing the matter on personal grounds.
The matter has been referred back to the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, who will now be referring the case to a different division bench.
To recall, in May 2023, Calcutta High Court’s then single-judge bench of erstwhile Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who is currently a BJP Lok Sabha member, ordered the cancellation of jobs of 32,000 primary teachers in the state.
Gangopadhyay passed the order acting on some petitions filed by some deprived candidates alleging that many secured recommendations for appointments despite ranking much lower in the recruitment examinations than many of the deprived candidates.
The state government challenged that order at the division bench, and the matter was referred to the bench headed by Justice Sen. However, Justice Sen is now recusing himself from hearing the matter, and it is to be seen now to which new division bench of Calcutta High Court the matter will be referred to.
The counsel for the petitions, Tarunjyoti Tiwari, said that he hopes that the matter will be referred to a new division bench, where fast and regular hearings will happen.
Last week, the Supreme Court division bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar upheld an earlier order by Calcutta High Court’s division bench of Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi to cancel a total of 25,753 appointments made by the West Bengal School Service Commission.
These appointments were for secondary and higher secondary teachers and non-teaching staff in Group-C and Group-D categories.
The apex court’s division bench also accepted the argument of the earlier observation by the Calcutta High Court’s division bench that the entire panel had to be cancelled because of the failure on the part of the state government and the commission to segregate the “genuine” candidates from the “tainted" ones.
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