WBBPE challenges order of service termination of primary teachers at higher bench

Kolkata, May 15 (SocialNews.XYZ) The West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE), on Monday, challenged the Calcutta High Court's single-judge bench order for termination of services of 36,000 primary teachers in state-run schools at a division bench of the same court.

On Friday, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay while ordering for the termination of services for 36,000 of the 42,500 primary teachers appointed in 2016, observed that none of them had the required training and that they got recruited without appearing for the compulsory aptitude tests.

This morning, WBBPE challenged the order at the division bench of Justice Subrata Talukdar and Justice Supratim Bhattacharya. The matter is likely to be heard on Tuesday.

WBBPE has challenged the single-judge bench's observation that these primary teachers were recruited without proper training.

According to it, all the primary teachers recruited in 2016 received post-job training in the open and distance learning (ODL) mode.

In his order on Friday, Justice Gangopadhyay also directed WBBPE to fill up the vacancies arising from the termination of services within the next three month.

The single-judge bench has held Trinamool Congress legislator and former WBBPE president Manik Bhattacharya responsible for the irregularity and observed that if WBBPE wants, it can recover the cost of the process of filling up the vacancies from Bhattacharya, who is currently in judicial custody because of his alleged involvement in the scam.

However, Justice Gangopadhyay directed that these 36,000 primary teachers will be able to attend their respective schools for the next four months and during which they will be paid the salary of para-teachers instead of that for regular teachers.

If any candidate among these 36,000 completes the requisite training in the interim period, he/she will be eligible for appearing for examinations in the next recruitment phase.

Source: IANS