Kolkata: A section of the 842 non-teaching staff in Group C category in different state-run schools in West Bengal, whose services were terminated following an order of a single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court last week, has now challenged the termination order at a division-bench of the same court.
On March 10, Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay had ordered the termination of services of 842 Group-C staff on grounds of illegal appointment through tampering of optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets as well as without proper recommendation letters from the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC).
On Monday morning, a section of these terminated 842 Group-C non-teaching staff approached the Calcutta High Court’s division bench of Justice Subrata Talukdar and Justice Supratim Bhattacharya challenging the earlier single-judge bench order on this count.
The matter might come up for hearing any day this week, informed the counsel for the petitioners, Partha Deb Burman.
To recall, an earlier order by Justice Gangopadhyay on the termination of 1,911 Group-D staff on the same grounds was also challenged in the same division bench of Justice Talukar and Justice Bhattacharya. However, the court did not put any stay on the main order on the termination of services, though allowed an interim stay on that part of the order that called for return of salary received so far. The matter is pending at the Supreme Court currently.
After the WBSSC uploaded the list of terminated Group-C staff on its website last week, the names of a number of Trinamool Congress leaders and their close relations have appeared in the list. One of the names is that of Bristy Mukherjee, a niece of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
–IANS