Swarnali Maiti Bhunia & Ors vs State Of West Bengal & Ors
2023 Latest Caselaw 2454 Cal

14
Court
No. 11
G.S.Das
          11.04.2023
                                          FMA 1441 of 2022
                                               With
                                           CAN 1 of 2022
                                         Swarnali Maiti Bhunia & Ors.
                                                      -Vs-
                                          State of West Bengal & Ors.

                       Mr. Tushar Sinha Mahapatra
                       Mr. Pranab Kr. Das
                                                    ... for the appellants

                       Mr. Swapan Kr. Datta
                       Ms. Sujata Mukherjee
                                                ... for the Respondents

Party/Parties is/are represented in the order of their

name/names as printed above in the cause title.

The appeal is directed against the Judgment and Final

Order dated 8.09.2022, in the writ petition being WPA 13924

of 2021.

The appellants were the writ petitioners before the

Hon'ble Single Bench. The appellants claims to have obtained

training certificates from the institutes recognised by the

West Bengal Board of Primary Education (for short, the

Board). The appellants claim to be entitled to additional

marks on the basis of their training qualifications. Since such

institutes were approved by the Board, pursuant to the

adjudication by the Hon'ble Apex Court, the appellants/the

writ petitioners approached the Hon'ble Single Bench for

conferment of the said additional marks.

Before the Hon'ble Single Bench an Order dated 24 th

January, 2019 passed by the Hon'ble Apex Court in Civil

Appeal No. 1071 of 2019 arising out of SLP (Civil) No. 29518

of 2016 in the case of Amina Khatun & Ors. -vs- Birbhum

District Primary School Council & Ors was produced for

consideration by the Hon'ble Single Bench.

The Hon'ble Supreme Court was pleased, inter alia, to

hold as follows:

"We are, however, conscious of the fact that

the teachers who obtained the certificates from

the institutes recognised by the State

Government are not to blame. They have been

part of the recruitment process which began in

the year 2006 and carried on for four years.

Not only that, some of these persons

immediately approached the Court in the years

2009 and 2010 to assail the denial of

weightage to be given to them for having

obtained the certificates and even though they

succeeded in those proceedings, a second

round of proceedings have been initiated on

account of certain subsequent developments.

In order to do complete justice inter se the

parties, while not interfering with the impugned

judgement/s passed by the High Court on a

principle of law, we consider it appropriate to

exercise our power under Article 142 of the

Constitution of India to issue the following

directions:

(1) The primary teachers who obtained their

certificates from the institutes recognised by

the State Government, will also be entitled to

the weightage under Rule 9(2)(d) of the

Recruitment Rules, 2001 so long as they have

filed the legal proceedings in the High Court on

or before 31st December, 2010. This would

include such of the parties who are the original

petitioners or interventionists in their individual

names so long as the petitions or the

applications for intervention have been filed on

or before 31st December, 2010. We make it

clear that this relief will be available to only

such persons and no others.

(2) On the basis of the aforesaid additional

marks, the selection process undertaken in the

year 2009-10 in pursuance to what was begun

in the year 2006, will be revisited and a panel

for appointment of primary teachers will be

again made. Such of the beneficiaries by this

order which figure in the merit list keeping in

mind the posts advertised and filled up would

get the benefit of appointment with all benefits

flowing prospectively only.

(3) The aforesaid exercise will however not

disturb the persons in any manner who have

already been appointed and the preparation of

the list is only to determine such of the

beneficiaries who would have been benefited if

the additional marks have been granted to

them.

(4) The entire exercise shall be completed and

letters of appointment be issued within a

maximum period of three months from today."

The Hon'ble Single Bench therefore came to the

conclusion that the right to enforce a claim for weightage has

been restricted by the Hon'ble Apex Court in Amina Khatun

(supra) only to those candidates, who enforced their claim by

and within the 31st of December, 2010.

The Hon'ble Single Bench further came to the

conclusion that the cause-of-action of the appellants/the writ

petitioners arose in 2009-2010, whereas this writ petition has

been filed in 2021. Accordingly, the writ petition stood

dismissed for delay and lachess.

Having heard the parties and considering the

materials placed, this Court finds no reason to take a view

different from the view as expressed by the Hon'ble Single

Bench.

Accordingly, FMA 1441 of 2022 along with CAN 1 of

2022 stands dismissed.

Since Affidavits are not invited, other allegations made

are deemed not to have been admitted by the parties.

Copies of the writ petition filed today by the appellants

be retained with the record.

Affidavit-of-service filed today be also retained with the

record.

All parties to act on a server copy of this order duly

obtained from the official website of the Hon'ble High Court,

Calcutta.

(Supratim Bhattacharya, J.) (Subrata Talukdar,J.)