An 11-year roller-coaster comes to a close for now, with a Calcutta High Court division bench rejecting an earlier order to sack 32,000 primary school teachers. Here’s a low-down on how it began and how it ended
INCEPTION
2014: The seeds of the controversy date back to 2014. The notification for the Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) is published.
2015: The West Bengal Board of Primary Education conducts the test to shortlist candidates for the teacher jobs.
RECRUITMENT
2016: As many as 42,500 primary teachers recruited.
2018: Some candidates who did not make it to the list file a petition in Calcutta High Court, alleging irregularities in the recruitment process. They allege that the teacher posts were sold for money. 2021: The high court starts hearing the appeal.
ALLEGATIONS
- Several applicants had not appeared for the aptitude test mandatory to clear TET but were among the 42,500 who had been recruited.
- Gangopadhyay mentions that some of the recruited candidates are “untrained”.
- Candidates who scored low marks in the selection process got jobs.
May 12, 2023: In his order, Gangopadhyay, now a BJP MP from Tamluk in East Midnapore, asks the state government to carry out a fresh recruitment process and complete it in three months.
CHALLENGE
May 22, 2023: The state challenges the order and approaches a division bench led by Justice Subrata Talukdar and Justice Supratim Bhattacharya.
- The division bench orders an interim stay on the sack verdict and extends the time frame for fresh selection to six months.
- This gives the state a breather to appeal before the apex court
SUPREME COURT
- The state moves the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the cancellation of the recruitment of 36,000 primary teachers. It says the state’s education infrastructure will break down.
- The apex court stays the high court division bench order to complete the teacher selections within six months and sends the case back to Calcutta High Court.
BACK TO HIGH COURT
The case comes up for hearing in the court of Justice Harish Tandon. However, he retires and does not hear it.
Division bench: The case is transferred to a division bench led by Justice Soumen Sen, now the chief justice of Meghalaya High Court. Justice Sen refuses to hear the case, citing personal reasons.
New division bench: After Justice Sen recuses, the case goes back to the Calcutta High Court chief justice, who assigns it to the division bench of Justice Tapobrata Chakraborty and Justice Reetobroto Kumar Mitra.
HEARING
November 12, 2025: The division bench of Justices Chakraborty and Mitra concludes the hearing.
VERDICT
December 3, 2025: The division bench scraps Gangopadhyay’s order cancelling the recruitment of 32,000 primary school teachers.