NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has allowed applications filed by serving primary school teachers to be heard in proceedings challenging a Calcutta High Court verdict that upheld their appointments under the West Bengal Board of Primary Education’s 2016 recruitment.
The dispute concerns the recruitment conducted pursuant to an advertisement for 42,949 posts of Assistant Teachers for Classes I–VIII across 23 districts of the State. By a judgment dated 12 May 2023, a Single Judge of the High Court set aside the appointments of about 32,000 untrained teachers and directed a fresh selection process to be carried out. On 3 December 2025, a Division Bench allowed a batch of 44 appeals, set aside the Single Judge's judgment and left the teachers' appointments undisturbed.
Unsuccessful candidates thereafter moved the Supreme Court by way of a special leave petition. The affected teachers, along with several caveators and intervenors, sought impleadment, contending that they were the persons most directly affected and had never been heard.
Senior advocates including Mukul Rohatgi and Paramjit Singh Patwalia appeared in the matter. Advocate Tarini K. Nayak, along with Sakhawat Khandakar, appeared for numerous caveators and intervenors.
Appearing for the intervenors and caveators, Nayak submitted that the teachers are successful and meritorious candidates who have served without a break since August 2017, and that there is "not a whisper of any allegation of misconduct" against a single one of them.
Nayak contended that nearly 32,000 teachers had been "condemned unheard" before the Single Judge, their appointments cancelled en masse without their being impleaded or heard, even in a representative capacity, and that the Division Bench had rightly found no material to establish any systemic fraud or corruption in the selection. Any interference at this stage, Nayak added, would jeopardise the livelihood of 32,000 families and the education of lakhs of schoolchildren.
The order permitting the applications enables the affected teachers to place their case on record when the special leave petition is heard. The matter is next listed for hearing in November, 2026.