A division bench of Calcutta High Court on Monday granted permission to the state primary education board to move an appeal against an order by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the court cancelling the recruitment of over 36,000 teachers in government-aided primary schools.
Also on Monday, the bench, headed by Justice Subrata Talukdar, granted permission to 269 of the 36,000-odd teachers to appeal against Justice Gangopadhyay’s order.
The judge had on Friday scrapped the jobs of these teachers, who had been appointed in 2016 on the basis of their performance in the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) 2014, on the grounds that they did not have a diploma in elementary education at the time of recruitment.
The board has said the judge did not allow the lawyer representing it to make a submission before issuing the order.
“The board has recruited the teachers in accordance with the law,” state primary education board president Goutam Paul told The Telegraph on Monday.
The 269 teachers came up with the same contention as the board.
Both appeals are likely to come up for hearing on Tuesday before the division bench headed by Justice Talukdar.
Board president Paul had told this newspaper on Saturday that if they moved a higher court against Justice Gangopadhyay’s order, they would highlight the fact that the teachers had been imparted training by 2019 in compliance with a directive from the National Council for Teachers’ Education.
A board official said the bench that would hear the appeal would be told that the Union education ministry had given the Bengal government a one-time permission to recruit untrained candidates. The government was told to get the teachers trained after their appointment.
Another appeal
Tarunjyoti Tewari, counsel for the petitioners who challenged the recruitment, moved an appeal in the court of Justice Gangopadhyay saying there are around 27,000 untrained teachers, not 36,000. Tewari pleaded for rectification of the figure.
Justice Gangopadhyay will hear the appeal on Wednesday.
