1. The petitioners before this Court are serving as Assistant Teachers in various Primary Schools under the North 24 Parganas and Malda District Primary School Councils. They were selected pursuant to the recruitment process initiated in the year 2009 and appointed under various orders of this Court.

2. The grievance raised is that many of such appointees either:

a) possess only Madhyamik (Class 10^th) qualification without Higher Secondary; or b) possess Higher Secondary qualification but with less than 50% marks; or c) possess Higher Secondary with 50% and above, but without the requisite two-year Diploma in Elementary Education (D.El.Ed) mandated by the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 and the Regulations framed by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).

These petitioners seek permission to acquire their academic and/or training qualifications while continuing in regular service and to draw their due salary during such period.

3. This Court notes that by order dated 11^th July, 2024 passed in WPA 17597 of 2024 (Santanu Paul & Ors. vs. State of West Bengal & Ors.), a co-ordinate Bench of Hon’ble Justice Rajasekhar Mantha had already held that th