IMPORTANT POINT
Appointment – A Panel or a Merit List cannot be treated as if it exists in perpetuity, which will facilitate making appointments as and when required – Even when vacancies are notified and adequate number of candidates are shortlisted, these candidates do not acquire indefeasible right to be appointed against those vacancies.

JUDGMENT :

Hrishikesh Roy, J.

1. Heard Mr. Jaideep Gupta and Ms. Meenakshi Arora, learned senior counsel appearing for the appellants. Also heard Mr. Vinay Navare, Dr. Menaka Guruswamy, Mr. Salman Khurshid, Mr. Rauf Rahim and Mr. Dama Seshadri Naidu, learned senior counsel, Ms. Sumedha Halder and Ms. Madhumita Bhattacharjee, learned counsel appearing for the respondents & impleaders.

2. Relevant facts for the sake of convenience are taken from Civil Appeal Nos. 1875-1876 of 2024, filed by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education [hereinafter referred to as ‘Board’].

FACTUAL MATRIX

3. The origin of the dispute lies in the Board’s Notification dated 23.12.2020 for filling up 16,500 vacancies of primary school teachers with a qualification criterion of possessing the minimum NCTE-prescribed training qualification and having qualified the Teacher Eligibility Test 2014 [hereinafter referred to as ‘TET-2014’]. Thereafter, a Merit List for 15,284 candidates was notified on 15.02.2021. Subsequently, two more Merit Lists were published, covering all the 16,500 vacancies that were notified by the Board. As per the West Bengal Primary School Teachers Recruitment Rules, 2016 [hereinafter referred to as ‘Recruitment Rules, 2016’], the said panel of candidates was then sent across to the respective District Primary School Councils (‘appointing authority’ under S.5 of Recruitment Rules 2016) to make appointments therefrom.

4. At that shape, a few candidates who had not yet been appointed approached the Calcutta High Court seeking directions that the Board fill up the remaining vacant seats by reducing cut-off marks in each category. After the unfilled vacancies were reconciled, the learned Single Judge vide order dated 26.09.2022 directed that the 252 Writ Petitioners be granted appointments against these unfilled 3929 vacancies. Subsequently, the Board notified the filling up of a fresh set of 11,765 vacancies for primary school teachers vide Notification dated 21.10.2022, considering the candidature from TET-2014 as well as TET-2017 candidates.

5. Immediately thereafter, the Board filed an appeal (MAT No. 1734/2022 & CAN 1/2022) challenging the Single Judge’s order of 26.09.2022. In dismissing the Board’s appeal, the Division Bench directed that the balance 3929 vacancies of primary school teachers be treated exclusively as part of the 16,500 vacancies pertaining to TET-2014 candidates only, for which recruitment process had commenced vide Notification dated 23.12.2020.

6. The Division Bench concluded that the entire TET-2014 selection as well as the appointment process was fraught with irregularities. The Merit List contained only ranks of the candidates without offering their comparative marks. It was observed that not just the TET-2014 candidates or Writ Petitioners before the High Court but the Board itself was not aware of the cut-off mark at which appointments had ceased. Marks were not disclosed to the unsuccessful candidates and they were given only one-line intimation that they were ‘not included in the present Merit List’. These features shrouded the entire selection process into deeper suspicion, thereby further vitiating the appointment process as opined by the Division Bench.

7. With this understanding, the Division Bench directed that the TET-2014 Eligibility List be treated as the Merit List to determine inter-se positions of the TET-2014 candidates, including those 252 applicants who had filed Writ Petitions before the High Court. Consequently, the Single Bench order dated 26.09.2022 was modified to the effect that the 3929 left over vacancies were extended to all the remaining TET- 2014 candidates, in descending order of their inter-se positions in the TET Eligibility List 2014, notwithstanding the fact that these vacancies were carried forward through a fresh recruitment Notification dated 29.09.2022.

8. Appeals herein have been filed by the Board & others to challenge the Division Bench judgment dated 11.11.2022 of the Ca