Kolkata, Dec 23 (IANS) The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), on Tuesday, approached a division bench of the Calcutta High Court, challenging the order by a single-judge bench of the same court earlier this month, cancelling the jobs of 313 teachers, attached to different GTA-run schools in the hills scattered over Darjeeling, Kurseong, and Kalimpong in West Bengal.
The matter will be heard at the Jalpaiguri Circuit Bench by the division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Biswaroop Chowdhury.
The first date of hearing in the matter is not yet known.
On December 17, Calcutta High Court’s single-bench of Justice Biswajit Basu ordered the cancellation of 313 teaching jobs in GTA-run schools, saying that all these recruitments were made illegally.
At the same time, the bench also directed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the West Bengal Police to continue its investigation in the matter.
Justice Basu also said that the salaries of the 313 teachers should be stopped immediately.
He asked why the expenditure for paying salaries to illegally appointed teachers should be borne by the state exchequer.
He also raised questions over the academic qualifications of the 313 teachers whose appointments were found to be illegal.
From December 18, “Sanyukta Madhyamik Shikshak Sangathan (United Secondary Teachers’ Association)”, a body of secondary teachers attached to different state-run schools in West Bengal, started an indefinite cease-work at all the GTA-run schools, thus virtually collapsing the academic exercise in the Hills.
Initially, GTA wanted the State Education Department to be a party in the case challenging the order of the single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court.
However, the State Education Department showed reluctance to be a party in the matter.
The contention of the State Education Department is that since the GTA was an autonomous body, it was not necessarily governed by the general recruitment rules applicable to teachers’ appointments in state-run schools, whether through the West Bengal School Service Commission or the West Bengal Board of Primary Education and hence there were legal complications for the state government or the Education Department to be made a party in a petition challenging the single-judge bench order.
Now, GTA has decided to challenge the Calcutta High Court’s order on its own.
–IANS
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