Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed the state primary education board to submit district-wise merit lists of candidates who had written the Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) in 2015 and related documents within two weeks.
The list and the documents are related to the recruitment of teachers in government-aided primary schools (Class I to V).
About 42,000 candidates who had written the TET in 2015 — the test is referred to as TET 2014 as the notification for it was issued that year —were empanelled for appointment by the state primary education board in 2016.
A little more than 42,000 candidates have since joined government-aided primary schools.
Two cases related to alleged corruption in recruitment of primary school teachers from among the candidates who had taken the TET 2014 had earlier been shifted from his court after a Supreme Court order.
The apex court had left it to the discretion of the acting chief justice of Calcutta High Court to decide whether the other cases related to recruitment of teachers would also be shifted from Justice Gangopadhyay’s court.
Since the acting chief justice did not shift the other cases, there is no bar on Justice Gangopadhyay hearing them.
Wednesday’s order was issued while JusticeGangopadhyay was hearing a petition related to recruitment of primary schoolteachers.
On December 6, 2022, Justice Gangopadhyay had said he would, “if necessary”, cancel the entire panel of candidates who had cracked the TET 2014 if they were found to have been recruited illegally.
If the judge passes such an order, the jobs of over 42,000 teachers in government-aided primary schools would be cancelled.
A lawyer said Wednesday’s order was related to whatJustice Gangopadhyay hadobserved in early December.
On April 25, the Central Bureau of Investigation had written to the primary education board president seeking documents related to the TET 2014 in connection with an ongoing probe into alleged irregularities in the selection “process of assistant teachers of primary schools”.
A deputy superintendent of police, SIT (special investigation team), CBI, ACB (anti-corruption branch), wrote to the board seeking a list containing the roll numbers of candidates who had written the TET in 2015, names and addresses of the schools where they had joined, present status of appointment and their contact numbers.
