Big judgment today: Calcutta HC to decide fate of 32,000 Bengal primary teachers!

A division bench of Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Ritabrata Kumar Mitra will at 2 pm pronounce the judgement after six months of hearings. The court concluded arguments on November 12.

The case stems from a 2023 order by then single-judge Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay—now a BJP MP—directing the cancellation of appointments of 32,000 teachers following petitions alleging large-scale recruitment irregularities.

The petitioners claimed that several candidates with lower ranks were recommended for appointment ahead of higher-ranked applicants.

The state government challenged the single-bench order before a division bench. The matter was initially assigned to Justices Soumen Sen and Smita Das De, but after Justice Sen recused himself, it was reassigned to Justices Chakraborty and Mitra.

The impending verdict holds significant political implications. If the division bench upholds the single-judge order, it would mark a major setback for the Mamata Banerjee government ahead of the 2026 assembly elections.

Earlier, on April 3, the Supreme Court cancelled appointments of nearly 26,000 teaching and non-teaching staff recruited through the School Service Commission (SSC), citing corruption and failure to distinguish between deserving and undeserving candidates.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar had ruled that the recruitment process was “vitiated and tainted by fraud”.