Justice restores teachers’ dignity

The Calcutta High Court's decision to reinstate over 32,000 primary teachers in West Bengal has come as a long-delayed correction in a saga where law, livelihoods, and political currents became dangerously entangled.

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These teachers, recruited through a Teachers’ Eligibility Test conducted in 2014, had already put in nearly nine years of service when a single-judge verdict abruptly snatched away their careers. That earlier verdict, delivered by Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay on the eve of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, ordered their dismissal on the ground that an aptitude test had not been conducted. The judgement fell like a thunderbolt. Soon after, the judge resigned from the Bench, contested elections on a BJP ticket, and entered Parliament. In retrospect, the sequence of events invites uncomfortable questions.