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Calcutta High Court: Calcutta High Court on Wednesday said that the jobs of 32,000 primary school teachers will remain.
Calcutta High Court: Calcutta High Court has given big relief to primary school teachers in West Bengal. The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday said that the jobs of 32,000 primary school teachers will continue. The decision of the single bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay in the Calcutta High Court was overturned by the division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty. A division bench of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday rejected the single bench order that had canceled the appointments of 32,000 primary school teachers in West Bengal. These teachers were recruited through the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) of 2014. A bench headed by Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty said it was not inclined to uphold the single bench order as irregularities in all the recruitments had not been proven.
Irregularities not proven in all recruitments
A bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Ritabrata Kumar Mitra said that it was not in favor of upholding the order of the single bench as irregularities in all the recruitments had not been proved. The court said that termination of employment after nine years would have a huge impact on primary teachers and their families and innocent teachers would also have to face huge humiliation and stigma. The bench further said that the services of the appointees cannot be terminated merely on the basis of ongoing criminal proceedings. The decision has come as a joy and relief to serving teachers, who had eagerly awaited the High Court’s verdict following the Supreme Court’s verdict quashing the appointments of around 26,000 teachers and non-teaching staff from the SLST 2016 panel on the grounds of large-scale recruitment corruption earlier this year.
Mamta Banerjee welcomed the decision
Describing this decision as a victory of truth, the teachers expressed their gratitude to the court that it washed away the stigma on them for the last two and a half years and allowed them to continue serving with their heads held high. The verdict, delivered barely a few months before the upcoming state elections, is clearly a big relief for the TMC-led West Bengal government, which has been grappling with perceptions of rampant corruption. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called this decision a humanitarian relief for thousands of families. State Education Minister Bratya Basu said that this decision has proved that our Chief Minister has always stood with our teachers and will continue to do so.
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