The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed the sacked but “untainted” teachers to continue in their posts till December 31, by when a fresh recruitment process must be completed, offering respite to the teachers and the Bengal government.
The bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar said the fresh recruitment process must start by May 31. The state’s government, secondary education board and school service commission must by that date file separate affidavits marking compliance with the directive and spelling out the entire recruitment schedule.
If they fail to do so, the present directive, passed in the interest of the thousands of pupils, will stand vacated and costs will be imposed on the state, school board and commission, Justice Khanna said.
The bench clarified that while the teachers “not found to be tainted” can continue till December 31 — and are free to apply for fresh recruitment — they cannot claim any “special right or advantage” relating to the fresh recruitment process.
It declined similar relief to the sacked non-teaching staff (Group C and D), saying the number of tainted candidates was “substantially high” among them and explaining that its order mainly aimed to ensure that the pupils did not suffer from a
teacher shortage.
On April 3, the apex court had cancelled en masse the appointments of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching school staff, recruited through the 2016 selection process, saying the entire process had been “vitiated”. (The teachers, all of them holding the post of assistant teacher, had been appointed for Classes IX to XII.)
The state government and the school board had moved applications saying the sudden removal of thousands of teachers would hobble the school education system, hurting the pupils.
They sought permission to continue with the untainted teachers till a fresh recruitment process had been completed, or till the end of the academic year, whichever came earlier.
“What has prompted us to pass this order for untainted assistant teachers is that the students undergoing studies should not suffer on account of the orders passed by this court,” the bench said.
“We are inclined to accept (the) prayer made in these applications in so far as it relates to the assistant teachers of Classes IX and X, Classes XI and XII, subject to the following conditions that the advertisements for fresh recruitments shall be completed by May 31 and the exam, including the entire process of appointment, shall be completed by December 31…” the bench said, dictating the order in open court.
If the state, school board and the school service commission “default” on filing the compliance affidavits by May 31, the order will stand “vacated” and the untainted teachers cannot continue in their posts beyond May 31.
The state government has not yet individually identified the “untainted” candidates or cited a number. It had said it would come out with a list later this month if it received legal approval for such a measure.
The school board’s application before the court said it had received the state government’s approval for a fresh recruitment process on April 3 itself.
It added that the current pupil-teacher ratio in the state for secondary and higher secondary schools was 52:1, against the ratio of 30:1 prescribed under the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan. It said the sackings had raised the ratio to 58:1.