Two crucial hearings on Bengal school jobs cases at Calcutta HC today

Kolkata, April 28 (IANS) Two crucial hearings related to irregularities in school job recruitments in West Bengal are scheduled before two division benches of the Calcutta High Court on Monday.

One division bench, comprising Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Reetobrata Kumar Mitra, will, for the first time, hear the case related to irregularities in the recruitment of primary teachers in state-run schools. These appointments were made by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE).

Simultaneously, another division bench of Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi will hear a contempt of court petition against the West Bengal government and the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC). The petition accuses them of failing to implement a Supreme Court order cancelling 25,753 teaching (secondary and higher secondary) and non-teaching jobs, appointments made through WBSSC’s 2016 panel.

Previously, the matter of irregularities in primary teacher recruitment was being heard by a bench comprising Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Smita Das. However, after Justice Sen recused himself earlier this month, the case was assigned to the bench of Justice Chakraborty and Justice Mitra.

The fate of approximately 32,000 primary teachers appointed by the WBBPE now hangs in the balance.

To recall, in May 2023, a single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court, then presided over by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay -- now a BJP Lok Sabha member -- ordered the cancellation of these appointments. The order came in response to petitions filed by deprived candidates alleging that many lower-ranked candidates had secured appointments.

The state government challenged that decision before a division bench, leading to its referral to Justice Sen’s bench, and now, following Justice Sen’s recusal, to the current bench.

Meanwhile, the contempt petition arises from an April 2025 Supreme Court order. A division bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar upheld the Calcutta High Court’s earlier ruling cancelling 25,753 appointments and noted that the entire panel had to be scrapped, citing the failure to segregate “genuine” candidates from “tainted” ones.

Following this, the contempt petition was filed against the state government and WBSSC for allegedly not executing the apex court’s order.

At the last hearing on April 23, the WBSSC’s counsel questioned the High Court’s authority to hear the contempt plea, arguing that modifications made by the Supreme Court to the Calcutta High Court's original order meant the matter should now lie only before the apex court.

However, the petitioners’ counsel countered that since the Supreme Court had upheld the central aspect of the Calcutta High Court’s order -- the cancellation of the entire 2016 panel -- the division bench retained the authority to hear the contempt petition.

--IANS

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