The Bengal advocate-general told a division bench of Calcutta High Court on Tuesday that an entire recruitment process could not be cancelled merely based on a petition by unsuccessful primary teacher candidates.
The state has challenged an order by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, now a BJP MP, cancelling the appointment of thousands of teachers in primary schools.
In his submission, advocate-general Kishore Datta questioned whether the court could say there was corruption in a recruitment process without having any proof to substantiate the allegation.
Datta, appearing on behalf of the state primary education board, argued for over two hours. However, his submission could not be completed on Tuesday. The bench fixed June 12 for the next hearing.
The state primary education board and the state government had challenged the legality of the judgment by Justice Gangopadhyay, cancelling the appointments of 36,000 primary schoolteachers who had been appointed based on the 2014 Teachers Eligibility Test (TET).
Bengal has been rocked by protests over the termination of jobs of 25,753 staff by the Supreme Court at the secondary and higher secondary levels of government-aided schools. At such a time, the uncertainties in the education system will be heightened if the services of 36,000 primary teachers are cancelled, said an education department official.
Datta cited high court and apex court judgments. “In the judgments I have cited, the Supreme Court and high courts ruled that a recruitment process cannot be scrapped by the judiciary based on a few complaints,” he said.
“The only charge brought against the board is that aptitude tests of the candidates were not taken, and those with lower marks were appointed. But this cannot be the ground for cancelling the entire process,” Datta argued.
He alleged that Gangopadhyay had changed a writ case into a PIL, and concluded that jobs were sold even though there was no proof.
Datta also alleged that unsuccessful candidates always try to find faults in the hiring process. “Merely based on their allegations, the judge can’t cancel 36,000 jobs.”