Calcutta HC Orders cancellation of Jobs of 36,000 Bengal Teachers

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court ordered the cancellation of the appointment of around 36,000 candidates who were untrained at the time of their recruitment as primary teachers by the West Bengal government. The court pointed out that due procedure was not followed in the appointment process.

Passing the order, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhay observed that “corruption of this magnitude” was never known in the state of West Bengal.

“The appointment of all 36,000 (more or less) candidates who were untrained at the time of recruitment in 2016 recruitment process conducted by the Board in the post of primary teachers are cancelled,” Justice Gangopadhyay said.

Justice Gangopadhay, in the 17-page order uploaded to the high court’s website, said that the allegation that there was no aptitude test has been proved before him from the evidence of the candidates and the interviewers.

From the gross illegality in the selection procedure in the recruitment exercise of 2016 conducted by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, it is clear that the board and its officials including its former president Manik Bhattacharya, who is now in custody after arrest by the Enforcement Directorate for the alleged transaction of huge money in the recruitment procedure, conducted the “whole affair like that of a local club”. The court directed that the West Bengal Board of Primary Education will immediately arrange for a recruitment exercise within three months only for the candidates who participated in the 2016 appointment process.