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Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court has ordered the cancellation of jobs of 36,000 primary teachers in the Bengal recruitment scam. All these teachers are untrained. In fact, there were allegations of large scale irregularities in the recruitment of these untrained teachers.
According to the information, this is the first decision in the country to cancel the jobs of such a large number of teachers at once. Earlier in 2014, around 10,000 teachers were dismissed by the High Court in Tripura.
Calcutta High Court Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, while giving this unprecedented direction on Friday, said that all these teachers will be able to go to school for the next four months, but they will get salary according to the lateral (mercury) teachers.
Along with this, the High Court has directed the state government to complete the recruitment process for the vacant posts within three months. The Board of Primary Education will make arrangements for the appointment of newly appointed teachers on vacant posts.
Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay also said that teachers whose jobs have been canceled can also take part in the new recruitment process if they have undergone training earlier.
Justice Gangopadhyay said that the entire panel of primary teacher recruitment process of 2016 would be cancelled. Tarun Jyoti Tiwari, the counsel for the 140 applicants, said there was a lot of malpractices in the recruitment process. Untrained teachers have been given jobs in the state. The number of people who have got jobs as teachers is very less as compared to the petitioners.
He also said that if the state government is unable to meet the expenses of this new recruitment process, it can take money from Manik Bhattacharya, former chairman of the Board of Primary Education and Trinamool MLA, if necessary.
On the other hand, on the instructions of the High Court, the Chairman of the Primary Education Board Gautam Pal said that all the teachers have been trained as per the rules. Aptitude test is also taken in the recruitment exam. He said that the board is taking legal advice in this matter. The board is considering challenging the order of the single bench of the High Court in a division bench.
