School jobs: West Bengal education department questions maintainability of contempt petition before Calcutta High Court

Kolkata: The West Bengal Education Department on Wednesday questioned before the Calcutta High Court the maintainability of a contempt petition that claimed non-compliance of its order regarding 26,000 school jobs in the state.

The petitioners claimed that the education department has not uploaded OMR sheets of the 26,000 teaching and non-teaching staffers who lost their jobs on a Supreme Court judgment that upheld the high court's order with some modifications.

The education department's counsel claimed before a division bench comprising justices Debangsu Basak and Md Shabbar Rashidi that since the Supreme Court has modified some of the directions of the high court, a contempt application can be moved before the top court only.

The lawyer representing the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) also questioned the maintainability of the contempt application before the high court on similar grounds.

The petitioner's lawyer submitted that a contempt application can be moved before the high court since no major change has been made by the apex court in the directions of the high court.

The matter will be heard again on Monday, the court said.

The petitioners, complaining of violation of the judgment passed by the high court on April 22, 2024 and "as modified" by the Supreme Court on April 3 and on April 17 this year, moved the contempt petition before the high court.

The petitioners claimed that OMR sheets available in three hard disks have not been uploaded on the website of the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) "forthwith" and be made available to the public for viewing as was ordered by this division bench.