Overview
- The Calcutta High Court’s division bench at the Jalpaiguri Circuit Bench stayed the December 17 single-judge order canceling 313 GTA school appointments.
- The interim stay lasts 12 weeks before Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Biswaroop Chowdhury, who noted the teachers’ long service and earlier recruitment pauses during political unrest in the hills.
- The original single-judge ruling had found the recruitments illegal, ordered a CID investigation, and directed that salaries be stopped.
- The GTA and the affected teachers challenged the cancellation, with arguments heard on December 23 and the stay issued on December 24.
- Classes in GTA-run schools have been disrupted by an indefinite strike since December 18, while the state has told the court that Cabinet approval to regularise the 313 is still pending and a 2023 committee report has been filed.