A division bench of the Calcutta High Court Wednesday granted a selection procedure for West Bengal government and government-aided school teachers. The division rejected appeals by some candidates against a single bench ruling, refusing to hear their challenge to certain provisions of the recruitment rules of 2025 made by the School Service Commission.
The verdict in the four appeals was reserved on Monday following arguments by the parties before a division bench headed by Justice Soumen Sen.
The petitioners objected before the single bench some rules of 2025 regarding fixation of minimum marks at graduation/post-graduation level to decide suitable candidates to appear in the selection process, and altering the pattern of awarding marks, except age relaxation terms.
The appeals of the candidates were rejected by the division bench, which also included Justice Smita Das De.
The rejection of the appeals enables the state government and West Bengal Central School Service Commission to go ahead with the process of selection of school teachers.
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Delivering the judgement, the bench observed that the selection criteria provided in the recruitment process of 2025 was designed to choose the best among the candidates.
It opined that the right to education as guaranteed under Article 21-A definitely sees the provision of quality education to the children and therefore would mean that the teacher has to be meritorious and the best of the bunch.
"Any process which applied equally to all the candidates and was aimed at bringing in the best talent, cannot be labelled arbitrary or irrational," the bench noted.
It stated that the constitutional courts in a judicial review are not acting as appellate bodies to review the rightness, appropriateness and aptness of a policy, unless the court reaches the conclusion that there is any infringement of basic rights of the citizen or is contrary to the provisions of the Constitution.
The court held that the executive's discretion is what decides the number of appointments to be made.
"The interest of the student is of paramount consideration," held the court.
Noticing that the eligibility standards in the 2016 selection process, which were invalidated by the high court and confirmed by the Supreme Court, are different from the hiring process of 2025, the bench decided that the new rules are more stringent and student-centred.
The division bench stated that the amendment in the eligibility criterion is in line and harmony with the NCTE (National Council for Teacher Education) guidelines.
State government representative Advocate General Kishore Dutta had earlier told the bench that the recruitment notification for teachers was according to the current requirement and in the interests of students.
According to the court's order, the state government, the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and the SSC had on Monday placed before it the photocopies of the affidavits submitted to the Supreme Court in the school recruitments case, where almost 26,000 recruitments were quashed due to a marred selection process.
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