Calcutta High Court Seeks State Govt Reply On PIL Alleging Irregularities, Corruption In Primary Teachers' Recruitment

The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday sought the reply of the state government on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea moved alleging irregularities, illegalities, and corruption in the recruitment of Assistant Teachers in Primary Schools of the State on the basis of the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), 2014.

The Bench of Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj also rejected the preliminary objection raised by the State on the ground of delay in filing the PIL Plea is rejected.

The PIL plea in brief

Essentially, one Tapas Ghosh has moved the instant PIL plea making a serious allegation that in the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), 2014 Examination, no merit list, and list of impaneled candidates was published and some candidates, who did not even participate or had not qualified TET, 2014, have been appointed as a primary teacher.

The PIL plea also referred to the public statement made by one of the Members of Parliament pointing out the irregularities in the TET panel and also about the complaint alleged against one of the MLA of the ruling party for taking crores of rupees from job aspirants with the promise to give government jobs in schools.

Further allegation on record was that in TET, 2014, 42,897 candidates were stated to have been selected till date but no merit list of 42,897 candidates was ever published by the Board by disclosing the numbers obtained in written, in interview nor any reserved category-wise list was published. 

Many other discrepancies and irregularities were also pointed out by the petitioner in his PIL plea.

On the other hand, the state government opposed the admission of the PIL plea arguing that since the case was related to primary teachers' recruitment that took place way back in 2014, it was too late to entertain the PIL plea now. 

Court's observations

At the outset, the Court noted that the writ petitions have already been filed by individual candidates highlighting the malpractices in appointment whereas, in the instant PIL, the entire process has been questioned.

The Court also took into account the supplementary affidavit filed by the petitioner indicating that the appointments are still being made on the basis of the TET, 2014 results even in the years 2021 and 2022.

In view of this, the Court was of the view that if allegations made in the PIL plea are found to be correct and if it is established that the Primary School Teachers have been appointed without having the requisite eligibility qualification, "then there will be a serious question-mark on their appointment and on the issue of continuance in service"

"...the matter relates to the appointment of Primary Teachers and if persons without minimum prescribed eligibility conditions and lacking merit are appointed, then the interest of the primary school students, who are future of the nation, will suffer. Hence, the allegation made by the petitioner in the writ petition cannot be taken lightly and ignored on the technical plea," the Court added as it rejected the state's objection against admitting the PIL plea.

Consequently, the State was granted four weeks time to file an affidavit-in-opposition on merit and the matter was listed for further hearing on August 16, 2022.

It may be noted that the Calcutta High Court last month removed Trinamool MLA Manik Bhattacharya from the post of Chairman of the Board of Primary Education with immediate effect in connection with alleged irregularities in the recruitment of teachers in state government-sponsored and aided primary schools.

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had earlier ordered a court-monitored probe by a special investigation team of the CBI into the alleged illegal appointments of at least 269 primary teachers.

Case title - Tapas Ghosh v. The State of West Bengal and others

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