32000 Teacher Cancel Case: Was there MHRD Relaxation in 32000 Teacher Recruitment? Did the Board Break Rules? Real Gazette Information Revealed

32000 Teacher Cancel Case: A very critical question has emerged in the sensational case concerning the cancellation of jobs of 32,000 primary teachers in West Bengal. Was there any relaxation from the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) for the appointment of these non-trained teachers in 2017? Advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, on behalf of the petitioners, has alleged that the deadline for recruiting non-trained teachers was March 31, 2015. But what are the actual facts? Were the rules really broken for this recruitment?

A detailed analysis of the Central Government’s gazette notification and regulations reveals a completely different picture. The legality of this recruitment process hinges on The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Act, 2017.

What Does the Central Government’s Law State?

On October 17, 2017, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) issued a crucial notification amending the RTE Act, 2009. This amendment provided clear guidelines regarding the minimum qualifications for teachers.

• Core of the Amendment: The act stated that all teachers who were appointed or were in position as of March 31, 2015, but did not possess the minimum qualifications (as per NCTE norms: 50% in HS, D.El.Ed, and TET pass), would have to acquire them.
• Time Limit: The most crucial point is that a time limit of four years was granted to acquire these qualifications.
• Effective Date: This law was implemented with a retrospective effect, meaning it was deemed to have come into force from April 1, 2015.

So, What Was the Final Deadline for Relaxation?

The calculation is quite straightforward. Since the law became effective on April 1, 2015, and a four-year relaxation period was provided to acquire the necessary qualifications, the final deadline for non-trained teachers to meet the minimum eligibility criteria was April 1, 2019.

This implies that there was no legal barrier to appointing non-trained teachers until April 1, 2019. As the recruitment process for the 32,000 teachers took place in 2016-17, it was entirely valid according to MHRD rules. These teachers subsequently completed their D.El.Ed course through NIOS by March 2019, well within the stipulated deadline.

The Answer to the Court’s Question

The first of the five questions posed by the Hon’ble Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty of the Calcutta High Court to the Primary Education Board was regarding this MHRD relaxation. From the information above, it is clear that there was a specific relaxation from the Central Government for the appointment of 32,000 non-trained teachers in 2017, and neither the Board nor the State Government violated any rules. Consequently, the allegation raised by the petitioners appears weak when compared with the facts from the gazette.