A high court division bench on Tuesday refused to vacate a stay imposed by a single bench on the recruitment of physical education and work education teachers through supernumerary posts.
A division bench, comprising Justices Soumen Sen and Smita Das, declined to interfere with the order passed by Justice Biswajit Basu.
On May 7, Justice Basu extended an earlier stay, disallowing the appointment of physical education and work education teachers in upper primary schools (Classes V to VIII) through supernumerary (additional) posts at least until June 18.
When a section of teaching job aspirants appealed to the division bench against the stay, Justices Sen and Das said they would not interfere with the single bench’s ruling at this stage.
The counsel for the aspirants asked the division bench how the interim stay could remain in force indefinitely, pointing out that the candidates had been waiting for two years to get recruited.
An official of the education department said the school service commission had planned to appoint physical and work education teachers from a pool of waitlisted
candidates, based on a state cabinet decision in May 2022 to create supernumerary
posts.
Justice Basu had issued the stay order in November 2022, raising questions about the legality of the cabinet’s decision.
The petition to vacate the stay first came up for hearing on April 5, 2025, days after the SSC recommended 1,240 candidates as physical and work education teachers in the supernumerary posts.
The recommendations were made a day after the apex court set aside a Calcutta High Court division bench directive that had ordered a CBI inquiry into the Bengal government’s 2022 decision to create additional posts.
Sudipto Dasgupta, a lawyer opposing the plea to vacate the stay, said: “The division bench has refused to interfere with the decision taken by Justice Basu. Justice Basu extended the stay on recruitment through supernumerary posts because he must have concerns about the legality of the decision endorsed by the state cabinet.”
Education department sources said many waitlisted candidates had appealed to the state government, concerned that they would miss out on the recruitment because of exceeding the age limit by the time the next hiring phase takes place.
“Hence, the government created extra posts so they could be recruited. The age limit for general category candidates is 37 years. The waitlisted candidates who appeared for the 2017 tests had been counselled in November 2022. But their names could not be recommended because a case had been filed in Calcutta High Court challenging the creation of the supernumerary posts,” said the official.