What Are the Two Key Hearings on Bengal School Job Cases at Calcutta HC Today?

Kolkata, April 28 (NationPress) Today marks two significant hearings concerning the irregularities in school job recruitments across West Bengal, taking place before two different division benches of the Calcutta High Court.

The first division bench, which includes Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Reetobrata Kumar Mitra, is set to address the case concerning the irregularities in the hiring process for primary teachers in state-run schools. These appointments were facilitated by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE).

At the same time, a separate division bench featuring Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi will review a contempt of court petition against the West Bengal government and the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC). This petition claims that they have failed to comply with a Supreme Court order that annulled the appointments of 25,753 teaching (secondary and higher secondary) and non-teaching positions, which were filled via the WBSSC’s 2016 recruitment panel.

Previously, the issue of irregularities in primary teacher recruitment was under the purview of a bench led by Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Smita Das. However, after Justice Sen recused himself earlier this month, the case was reassigned to the bench of Justice Chakraborty and Justice Mitra.

The situation for approximately 32,000 primary teachers appointed by the WBBPE now remains uncertain.

It is worth noting that in May 2023, a single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court, then led by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay -- who is now a BJP Lok Sabha member -- ordered these appointments to be cancelled. This decision was made in response to petitions from candidates alleging that numerous lower-ranked individuals had been appointed.

The state government contested this ruling before a division bench, subsequently passing it to Justice Sen’s bench, and now, following his recusal, it has reached the current bench.

Moreover, the contempt petition stems from a Supreme Court order issued in April 2025. A division bench headed by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar upheld the Calcutta High Court’s earlier decision to cancel 25,753 appointments and mandated the total scrapping of the entire panel, citing a failure to differentiate between “genuine” candidates and those considered “tainted.”

In the aftermath, the contempt petition was filed against the state government and WBSSC for allegedly neglecting to execute the apex court’s ruling.

During the most recent hearing on April 23, the counsel for WBSSC challenged the High Court’s jurisdiction over the contempt petition, asserting that changes made by the Supreme Court to the Calcutta High Court's original ruling meant the matter should now solely be addressed by the apex court.

However, the petitioners’ counsel argued that since the Supreme Court upheld the core aspect of the Calcutta High Court’s order -- which was the cancellation of the entire 2016 panel -- the division bench still possesses the authority to hear the contempt petition.