Calcutta High Court Restores Jobs of 32,000 Teachers, Sets Aside Cancellation Order

The Calcutta High Court in The West Bengal Board of Primary Education and Anr v Priyanka Naskar and Ors has overturned a single judge’s order that had cancelled the appointment of 32,000 primary school teachers in West Bengal. These appointments were cancelled by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who later resigned and entered politics.

A Division Bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Reetobroto Kumar Mitra held that the single judge passed the cancellation order in a case that did not even challenge the appointments. The original petition had only sought directions for providing the petitioners jobs in available vacancies.

The Bench noted that although the petitioners alleged irregularities in the 2014 TET, they did not produce any evidence linking the 32,000 appointees to any scam. The Court emphasised that allegations of corruption must be supported by proper documents and proof.

It further said that the appointees could not be penalised for alleged misconduct by State officials, and there was no justification to order fresh recruitment after cancelling such a large number of appointments.

Justice Gangopadhyay’s ruling had already been stayed while the appeals were pending. The Division Bench also stressed that the teachers had been serving for nearly nine years, and their appointments were never challenged at the relevant time. Revisiting settled matters after many years, the Court said, would lead to “anomalous results.”

The Bench clarified that it would have endorsed cancellation of the entire examination only if there were clear signs of widespread and systemic irregularities. However, the material before the Court did not show any such pattern. It also noted that investigative agencies had not found evidence of cheating or corruption involving the appointed teachers.

The Court observed that no complaints were ever raised about the teachers’ integrity or performance during their service period. It stated that unsuccessful candidates cannot be allowed to disrupt the entire system, especially when doing so may unfairly harm innocent teachers. The service of the appointees, it added, cannot be terminated merely on the basis of an ongoing criminal investigation.