The high court on Wednesday resumed hearing the state government’s appeal against an order by former judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay in May 2023 cancelling the appointments of over 36,000 primary school teachers based on the 2014 Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET).

A division bench headed by Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty is hearing the case.

Bengal advocate-general Kishore Datta started his argument during the day.

But he could not complete his submission.

The division bench has fixed May 20 for the nexthearing.

Datta argued in his submission: “Only 143 aggrieved candidates, who had failed to get appointments, had come to court. Justice Gangopadhyay had himself collected documents to prove the appointments illegal. His only point was the aptitude test. And in his final judgment, he claimed that aptitude tests of the candidates were not taken, which is incorrect.”

Datta claimed that based on the mere allegations by only 143 candidates, the court could not cancel all the appointments.

In 2014, around 25 lakh candidates wrote the TET. Based on that, appointments were given to 42,954 candidates in 2016.

Datta said the judgment passed by Gangopadhyay was unethical and contrary to the process of justice.