Bengal: Temporary relief for 32,000 primary school teachers
A division bench of the Supreme Court on Friday, July 7, in an interim order, set aside the May 12 order of the Calcutta High Court cancelling the appointments of 32,000 ‘untrained’ primary school teachers by the Bengal primary education board for having got the jobs in exchange for money, thus providing temporary relief to the teachers.
As of now, 32,000 ‘untrained’ primary school teachers in Bengal would not be losing their jobs as the Supreme Court today set aside the interim order of the Calcutta High Court.
That order, passed by the single bench of Justice Gangopadhyay, had directed the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) to conduct exams to select 32,000 primary teachers before the end of August 2023 to replace the ones who, as per its decision, had got their jobs through unethical means.
In its appeal against the high court order, the WBBPE had submitted that holding an examination to select so many teachers would not be possible within such a short timeframe and that it would be an expensive exercise.
The apex court’s division bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and KV Viswanathan also asked the Calcutta High Court to decide the appeal pertaining to the school-jobs-for-cash scam at the earliest.
Justice had, in a judgment passed on May 12, cancelled the appointment of 32,000 ‘untrained’ primary school teachers who had been recruited by WBBPE in 2016.
