Calcutta HC to hear primary teachers' termination appeals on April 28

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court will on April 28 take up for hearing appeals challenging the termination of around 32,000 jobs of primary teachers.

The matter was mentioned on Monday before a division bench, comprising justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Partha Sarathi Chatterjee, before which the appeals were assigned by Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam after another bench released the matter.

The division bench said that the appeals by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education and others, including some of those who were recruited, challenging the termination of jobs of primary teachers by a single bench, will appear before it on April 28 for hearing.

Releasing the matter from its court on April 7, a division bench comprising justices Soumen Sen and Smita Das De directed that the appeals be placed before Chief Justice Sivagnanam for assignment to a different bench.

The division bench cited "personal reason" of Justice Sen for releasing the matter from its list for hearing.

A single bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had on May 12, 2023, ordered the cancellation of the appointment of around 32,000 candidates who had not completed the teachers' training course when they were recruited as primary teachers through a selection process in 2016 on the basis of the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) of 2014.

A division bench had later stayed the single bench order terminating the jobs of around 32,000 teachers in West Bengal government-run and aided primary schools.