A Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday overturned a single-bench order that had terminated the appointments of 32,000 primary teachers in connection with the ongoing cash-for-jobs scam investigation. These teachers had been recruited through the Teachers' Eligibility Test (TET) conducted in 2014.
The bench, presided over by Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty, stated it was not inclined to uphold the single-bench order, arguing that systemic irregularities had not been definitively proven across all the recruitments.
The court maintained that the termination of employment after nine years would have a severe adverse impact on the primary teachers and their families.
"There must have been a possibility of systemic malice, [but] assessment of data doesn't point to the same. A group of unsuccessful candidates cannot be allowed to damage the entire system. A job taken away after 9 years of service would cause insurmountable difficulty," the bench ruled, according to reports by Live Law.
The court noted that the Central Bureau of Investigation, which had been directed to investigate the matter, had initially identified 264 appointments where irregularities took place, with the names of a further 96 teachers later coming under the agency's scrutiny. In light of these specific findings, the court concluded that the entire selection process could not be cancelled.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee welcomed the verdict. She said: "We respect the judicial process. I am happy that our brothers and sisters have got their jobs back."
The original order terminating the appointments of the 32,000 primary teachers was issued by a single bench, then presided over by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, on May 12, 2023.
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