High Court judge withdraws from primary teacher recruitment case

MP, 8 Apr 2025, Kolkata: A Calcutta High Court division bench judge on Monday recused himself from hearing the case on irregularities in recruitments of primary teachers in state-run schools. 

The matter was scheduled for hearing on Monday afternoon at Calcutta High Court’s division bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Smita Das. 

The hearing, however, could not take place as Justice Sen recused himself from hearing the matter on personal grounds. Now, the matter has been referred back to the High Court Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam, who will now be referring the case to a different division bench. 

The fate of around 32,000 primary teachers appointed by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, who are attached to different state-run schools in the state, is at stake in the case. 

In May 2023, High Court’s then single-judge bench of former judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay, had ordered the cancellation of jobs of 32,000 primary teachers in the state. 

The order was passed acting on some petitions filed by some of the deprived candidates, alleging that many secured recommendations for appointments despite ranking much lower in the recruitment examinations than many of the deprived candidates. 

The state government had challenged that order at the division bench. It was referred to the bench headed by Justice Sen. Last week, the Supreme Court upheld an earlier order by Calcutta High Court’s division bench to cancel a total of 25,753 appointments made by the West Bengal School Service Commission. 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/high-court-judge-withdraws-from-primary-teacher-recruitment-case-605645