Overview
- The state cabinet, led by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, approved the proposal on Wednesday, Oct 28, to bar teachers hired from now on from contesting panchayat, municipal, Assembly or Lok Sabha elections while in service.
- The restriction will apply only to future recruits and the government has said serving teachers who already hold elected office will be exempted from the ban.
- Officials intend to insert the bar into the West Bengal School Service Commission recruitment rules, but the change is not yet enacted and will require formal rule amendments before it can be enforced.
- The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has vowed a legal challenge and senior advocate Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya said he will move the Calcutta High Court; some serving teachers have also questioned the lawfulness of the proposal under current state education rules.
- The cabinet paired the announcement with other administrative measures, including approval for about 1,199 new posts and a forthcoming industrial policy, and the move could prompt judicial review that delays parts of the broader recruitment drive while leaving the political rights of future hires changed.