The high court will hear from May 7 the state’s appeal against an order by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay in May 2023 cancelling the appointments of over 36,000 primary school teachers based on the 2014 teachers’ eligibility test.

On Monday, the matter came up before a division bench headed by Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty.

"The fate of a large number of teachers is linked to this case. The bench will have to hear the matter in detail. A galaxy of lawyers will represent their parties. The hearing will begin on May 7," Justice Chakraborty said.

Appearing for the West Bengal Primary Education Board, senior counsel Kalyan Bannerjee said: "Yes, my lord. The court will have to hear us in detail."

The judge then asked the board to submit all the relevant documents relating to the appointment of the concerned teachers.

The state's advocate-general, Kishore Datta, sought permission to place a soft copy of the relevant documents. The bench asked him to deposit the documents.

From May 7, the case will be heard daily.

A lawyer involved in the case said the bench would have to hear several parties. The state government, the primary education board, the original petitioners, the teachers whose jobs are on the line and the CBI are among them.

Justice Gangopadhyay had scrapped the jobs based on a CBI report.

In 2014, the primary education board issued the TET notification to appoint teachers to 43,000 vacant posts in state-aided primary schools.

Around 25 lakh candidates took the test. In 2016, based on the 2014 TET, appointments were given to 42,954 candidates.

In 2023, a section of the candidates alleged they were not given appointments despite clearing the TET. They moved the court of Justice Gangopadhyay, claiming that the appointments of nearly 36,000 candidates were illegal because they were appointed despite scoring less.

In May 2023, Justice Gangopadhyay cancelled the appointments of over 36,000 teachers in government-aided primary schools.

Days later, a high court division bench ordered an interim stay on Justice Gangopadhyay’s order.

On April 7 this year, the matter came up before a division bench headed by Justice Soumen Sen, who refused to hear the appeal on “personal grounds”. The case was then referred to Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, who assigned it to the bench headed by Justice Chakraborty.