India News | HC Tells WB Central School Service Commission to Hold Fresh Selection Process of Assistant Teachers

Kolkata, Dec 11 (PTI) The Calcutta High Court on Friday cancelled the selection process for appointment of candidates to the post of assistant teachers for upper primary schools in the state by the West Bengal Central School Service Commission and directed it to hold a fresh process of selection.

After hearing a number petitions seeking cancellation of the entire selection process on the ground that rules were not followed, Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya passed the judgement directing the commission to hold a fresh selection process of all the candidates who were found to be eligible to apply as per criteria set by the commission and proceed onwards from that stage.

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"This court deems it fit to cancel and set aside the selection process for appointment of candidates to the posts of assistant teachers for upper primary level schools in the state pursuant to the notification published for the said posts on September 23, 2016," the court directed.

The court said that the commission will proceed to verify the validity of TET certificate, academic and professional qualifications as provided under the West Bengal School Service Commission (Selection for Appointment to the Posts of Teachers for Upper Primary Level of Schools) Rules, 2016.

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The database and the selection of eligible candidates for verification must consist of all candidates who had applied online for the selection process, it directed.

Observing that the court is aware of the serious shortage of teachers in the relevant classes in schools across the state, it directed that the selection process must be completed by July 31, 2021.

The court directed that the verification process must commence on January 4 and be completed within April 5.

The commission will proceed to prepare the interview list and publish the same by May 10 and the merit list and the subsequent stages of constituting a panel should be completed within eight weeks from the date on which the interview list is published on the website of the commission, Justice Bhattacharya directed.

The selection process culminating in recommendation of the candidates for appointment should be completed within 31st July 2021, the court directed.

The commission will take into account specific cases where candidates may become ineligible to participate in the fresh selection process on account of age or as stipulated in the notification dated September 23, 2016, the court directed, adding that the criteria for considering such cases must be uniform.

The court directed that the commission will be at liberty to conduct the evaluation on the virtual mode wherever possible and adopt health and safety protocols which are warranted under the present circumstances or as long as the concerns relating to the pandemic remain.

The petitioners challenged the selection process claiming failure of the selection authority in complying with the West Bengal School Service Commission (Selection for Appointment to the Posts of Teachers for Upper Primary Level of Schools) Rules, 2016 at every stage.

They claimed that lesser qualified candidates with inferior academic qualifications and lower TET (Teacher Eligibility Test) weightage have been included in the merit list and that the interview list has been published without disclosing the specific marks obtained by the candidates.

They further claimed that the commission failed to prepare the merit list in terms of the rules and that the commission also failed to prepare the interview list as per the ratio mandated under the rules.

The petitioners also claimed that untrained candidates were considered for selection and arbitrary awarding of marks in the personality tests/interviews were done that would be evident from identical marks awarded to several candidates.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)