New Delhi: A nine-year wait for certainty ended this week for thousands of primary teachers in West Bengal. In a major decision, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court has overturned the May 2023 ruling by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay that cancelled the appointments of around 32,000 primary teachers, recruited on the basis of the 2014 Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET).
The bench of Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Reetobroto Kumar Mitra, in a 141-page judgment delivered 3 December and uploaded Friday, found that Justice Gangopadhyay’s ruling exceeded legal limits and caused disproportionate hardship to teachers who served for nearly a decade.
Notably, Justice Gangopadhyay resigned from judicial service in March 2024 and in two days, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before the general elections that year. He currently represents Tamluk in the Lok Sabha.
The government, the bench said, is the competent authority to frame guidelines and to conduct a selection process on this basis.
“The court cannot rewrite, recast or reframe the guidelines and cannot add words to the statute. Even if there is a defect or an omission, the court cannot correct the defect or supply omission in as much as such act would tantamount to judicial legislation, which is impermissible in law,” it said.
“A job taken away after about nine years of service would indisputably cause insurmountable inconvenience to the appellants and their survival along with their family members would be at stake.”
The controversy
The recruitment dates back to 2016, when the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) appointed thousands as primary teachers based on the 2014 TET panel. Allegations soon surfaced claiming large-scale irregularities and even a cash-for-jobs scam.
In 2022, 140 unsuccessful candidates filed a writ petition alleging that untrained and less-scoring candidates were appointed illegally. Notably, they did not challenge the appointments at the time they were made, or include the appointed teachers as parties.
When the order came in May 2023, Justice Gangopadhyay cancelled all 32,000 appointments and directed fresh recruitment only for 2,016 candidates.
The court, the judge had said, arrived at a finding that “in the recruitment scam stinking rats are being smelt”. The Board and its officials had conducted recruitment like the affairs of a local club, he had said.
His order reduced teachers’ pay temporarily and ordered termination for those who failed to re-qualify, triggering fear and anger among teachers who completed statutory training and worked uninterrupted for years.
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Grounds of appeal
The WBBPE and affected teachers challenged the 2023 ruling, arguing that no allegations were made against individual teachers. They contended that teachers were not heard before cancellation of their appointments and importantly, the petitioners never sought cancellation in the first place.
The petitioners asserted that Justice Gangopadhyay went beyond pleadings and his order relied on conjectures rather than evidence.
“The petitioners have alleged that there had been a scam in TET, 2014, however, nothing has been produced to establish the involvement of any single appellant in such alleged scam.
“For the alleged involvement of the functionaries of the state in any illegality, the appellants cannot be made to suffer,” the division bench agreed.
It strongly emphasised constitutional boundaries of judicial power. “The court cannot rewrite, recast or reframe the guidelines… No mandamus can be issued to amend or enact laws.”
Probe findings
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was roped in to probe the allegations that jobs were “sold” and that irregular assessment methods were used in the process.
Subsequently, the CBI examined the records of the TET 2014 selection process conducted by the WBBPE.
The HC acknowledged irregularities uncovered by the CBI, which found that 264 candidates received grace marks and 96 candidates appointed despite not securing qualifying marks.
These 96 were terminated but continue in service because of a Supreme Court order.
Beyond this, the bench held that “the allegation of fraud and corruption pertaining to the entire recruitment process, is not sustainable…”
There was no evidence of “system-wide cheating” and no bribery connection proven to the appointed candidates. Plus, no accusations regarding teachers’ performance or integrity during service.
The bench noted excessive media coverage created suspicion without proof, warning courts against acting like:…a “knight-errant, roaming at will in pursuit of his own ideal of beauty or of goodness.”
The judge, it said, ignored delay and laches, with the petitioners waiting five years before challenging the process. “About five years thereafter, the court ought not to have directed cancellation … which ‘unsettles the settled position’ (of the cancellation of the jobs of 32,000 teachers).”
It distinguished between minor procedural lapses and grounds for mass termination.“Any such direction for re-examination would fail to secure fair play in action,” the bench added.
The court also stressed that fraud must be proven. “Fraud cannot be presumed. It must be proved by cogent evidence.”
‘No licence to punish thousands’
While acknowledging that “jobs were actually sold to some candidates who had the money to purchase the employment” in isolated cases, the court said this did not justify mass cancellation: “A group of unsuccessful candidates should not be allowed to damage the entire system… innocent teachers would also suffer great ignominy and stigma.”
Also, it noted that there is no existence of any material to suggest that “the candidates appointed were involved in any money trail. Such finding is thus the outcome of mere surmises and conjectures.”
The HC highlighted that mass cancellation of appointments was never prayed for in the original writ petition, and that the appointed teachers were not impleaded as parties, resulting in a clear violation of natural justice. It found no evidence of systemic malice supported by data that could justify such a drastic measure.
The bench stressed that taking away jobs after nine years of continuous service would have devastating consequences for the teachers and their families.
It reiterated that courts must act based on concrete evidence rather than suspicion and cautioned against judicial innovation without legal basis, which would amount to “overreach”.
“We are not inclined to uphold the cancellation of appointment of the 32,000 teachers, who have worked in the post for a long period,” it said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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