The Supreme Court on Wednesday remitted to Calcutta High Court a batch of petitions challenging the Bengal government’s fresh recruitment rules for the appointment of teachers in the state.
The new selection process began in May this year, following the Supreme Court’s April 3 ruling upholding the Calcutta High Court’s judgment that quashed the appointments of around 25,000 teachers due to irregularities in the 2016 recruitment.
A bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice Alok Aradhe noted that the recruitment process was already underway and directed that any grievances regarding the fresh rules could be raised before the jurisdictional high court. Accordingly, the petitions were transferred back.
Earlier, on August 21, a bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma had granted relief to “untainted teachers,” directing the Bengal government to allow them to participate in the ongoing selection process without applying the newly introduced minimum 50% marks requirement in graduation and post-graduation.
The court had also extended the last date for submission of applications by 10 days for “untainted” candidates and postponed the selection process accordingly.
Previously, the minimum qualifying marks had been 45%. The new recruitment rules increased it to 50% for the ongoing selection process.