School Jobs for Cash Scam: Calcutta High Court stays single-judge order terminating 32,000 teachers; says justice hurried is justice buried

A division bench of the Calcutta High Court Friday stayed the order of the single-judge Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay who had set aside appointment of 32,000 teachers in West Bengal..A bench of Justices Subrata Talukdar and Supratim Bhattacharya noted that the original writ petitioners (before Justice Gangopadhyay) who had challenged the appointment, had a cause of action after discovery of fresh material by the board on November 28, 2022. Hence, Justice Gangopadhyay was within jurisdiction to enquire into the aspects connected to the discovery of the said fresh material, the Court said.However, the single-judge had the duty to hear the respondent-teachers before passing any order, the division bench said. "At the same time the judge (Justice Gangopadhyay) had a duty to extend a right of hearing even in the representative capacity to the present appointees. This duty became manifest in the context of the appellants being protected from loss of their jobs as consequence of the decisions rendered by two single judges of this court earlier," the bench held. The bench further observed that the niceties of law relating to grant of natural justice, accrual of rights, delay and waiver, burden of proof, precedential value of judicial decision have a role to play in maintaining the system of adversarial litigation adopted by the courts, unless hopelessly excluded."It is tried that justice delayed is justice denied and conversely justice hurried is justice buried. To the mind of this court therefore, termination of jobs, otherwise protected twice earlier, without extending meaningful right of defence to affected parties, prima facie requires judicial intervention. Therefore, there shall be an interim stay on the termination of jobs till September 2023," the bench underscored. It however, maintained that the Board shall conduct selection exercise before the end of August 2023 as ordered by Justice Gangopadhyay. It also, ordered to place the matter now before a division bench in September 2023. .By an order passed on May 12, Justice Gangopadhyay had cancelled the appointments of 36,000 teachers saying he could smell "stinking rats" in the recruitments scam known as school jobs for cash scam.The single-judge was hearing matters related to illegal recruitment in schools in West Bengal, when he was told that in the recruitment process held in 2016, thousands of "untrained" candidates were appointed despite them scoring less in the Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) and other counts.The single-judge noted that to recruit such candidates who scored less, they were given extra marks or maximum marks in aptitude tests which were shown to be conducted only on paper. The judge noted that no selection committee was constituted for the purpose of selection of eligible candidates and instead it was done by one outside agency, a third party which was not at all a part of the Education Board.This was in clear violation of the Recruitment Rules, the single-judge had said.He had, therefore, cancelled appointments of all the 36,000 candidates, who were untrained at the time of the recruitment process in 2016.The order was challenged by several teachers and the West Bengal Board of Primary Education (WBBPE) before the division bench led by Justice Talukdar..Before the division bench, advocate Tarunjyoti Tiwari, appearing for the original writ petitioners, highlighted the fact that his clients did not get the job despite scoring more marks than the 36,000 appointees."The hard fact is that there are thousands and thousands of youth, who are jobless. These people got less marks and we got more than them. Yet they got the jobs. Thus, the order impugned before this bench is justified," Tiwari argued.One of the advocates, appearing for some teachers, pointed out that on April 3, Justice Gangopadhyay had dismissed similar petitions on the ground that the same were filed after a delay of six years."So this impugned order is nothing but a second thought of the judge," the counsel argued.The advocate further highlighted the fact in December 2022, Justice Gangopadhyay had given an interview to a newspaper on this very issue."In December 2022, the judge had given an interview to a newspaper saying he will take away the jobs of these people. So basically, he should have recused himself from hearing the matter. But he did not," the counsel argued.The counsel further argued that the judge stepped into the shoes of a prosecutor and passed this order as he premised his order, wholly on section 165 of CrPC, which deals with search and seizures of material by investigating officers during a probe.Another advocate said that while passing the order, the single-judge did not have any material before him.Further, the counsel pointed out that similar petitions were dismissed by another single-judge Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, last year."Justice Gangopadhyay did not consider the orders of Justice Bhattacharyya. How can this be allowed? It is our court's rule that if there is a disagreement between two single judges, the issue has to be referred to a division bench. But that was not done. The judge just did not consider all this," the counsel highlighted.