Kolkata: Several protesters agitating against the teachers’ recruitment scam have expressed anger over former Calcutta high court Justice Abhijit Ganguly’s controversial transition to the Bharatiya Janata Party.
“He [Justice Ganguly] was the first one to expose the corruption in the teacher recruitment process. He ordered the central agency [CBI] to investigate the irregularities. He pressured them to catch the culprits. The agency arrested senior leaders and ministers of the ruling party [Trinamool Congress] and recovered cash,” said Mithu Mishtri, one of the protesters.
“However, our problem remained unsolved and we did not get the job. We would not have cared if he had been able to solve our plight. But now it all looks like a fabricated game,” she added.
Mithu, along with a group of protesters, has been demonstrating in front of the Gandhi statue in Dharmatala, Kolkata, for over three years, demanding transparency in teacher recruitment for government schools.
They allege that despite scoring high marks on the merit list for the 2016 State-Level Selection Test, conducted by the West Bengal Central School Service Commission, they were not offered appointments.
On the day Justice Ganguly formally joined the BJP, The Wire visited the protesters.
There were few protesters at the site. They were furious as they saw him as their final hope in the battle against corruption. The palpable emotions of frustration and betrayal were evident.
A photo of the teacher recruitment scam protest in Kolkata. Credit: Joydeep Sarkar
Nirmal Das, one of the job aspirants duped in the scam, felt deceived. He said, “[Justice] Abhijit Ganguly has compromised our cases. We now suspect that he intentionally made inflammatory statements to weaken the cases. In this process, we have lost precious years.”
In May 2022, Justice Ganguly, while serving on the high court bench, initiated a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the teacher recruitment scandal in West Bengal schools.
The order created ripples across the state, resulting in numerous arrests, including that of former education minister Partha Chatterjee.
In May 2023, he issued an order terminating the appointments of approximately 32,000 candidates who had not completed their teacher training at the time of their recruitment as primary teachers in 2016, based on the 2014 Teacher Eligibility Test (TET).
Bishalakshi Saren, who was identified as being unlawfully employed, has initiated legal proceedings seeking to annul all judgments delivered by Justice Ganguly.
Separately, TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee has accused Justice Ganguly of delivering judgments from a political standpoint. TMC has already indicated its intention to appeal to the court to nullify all of his judgments.
“We are not ready to give up. We are the eligible candidates. We are qualified to become teachers,” said Aditya, another protester.
Soon after his resignation, Justice Ganguly, in a media interview, questioned the continued protests by individuals seeking jobs. He said, “I don’t understand the rationale behind the ongoing demonstrations. If there was a genuine chance of securing employment, they should have approached the court.”
As a sitting judge, Justice Ganguly positioned himself as a champion against corruption. However, after announcing his intention to join the BJP, he dismissed the Narada sting operation – in which BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari allegedly accepted money – as a “conspiracy”.
“Suvendu Adhikari was a victim of a larger conspiracy. The Narada sting operation was orchestrated to defame his party leaders,” Justice Ganguly said.
“TMC’s MLA in Kalna, Biswajit Kundu, was one of the first ones to be caught at the TET corruption. He gave jobs to 65 family members illegally. Since then, he has left TMC to join BJP. The TET Corruption Crusader Justice has now joined the same party. He works alongside Kundu. People will judge these people,” said CPI(M) spokesperson and advocate Sayan Banerjee.
Justice Ganguly’s tenure on the Calcutta high court bench was marked by a series of unconventional actions that drew significant public attention and raised concerns about judicial conduct.
In April 2023, the Supreme Court reprimanded Justice Ganguly for granting an interview where he criticised a political leader. As a result, the top court requested that a case involving the politician be moved from Justice Ganguly’s court to maintain public trust in the judiciary.
Later in 2023, Justice Ganguly ordered the arrest of a lawyer in his courtroom, prompting the Calcutta High Court Bar Association to boycott him. This incident further fuelled public debate about his approach.
Earlier this year, after a two-judge bench overturned his ruling, Justice Ganguly made public accusations against one of the judges, questioning his impartiality and the legality of the order. The Supreme Court intervened, raising concerns about the situation.
Beyond his actions, Justice Ganguly also made public statements that were seen by many as controversial. These included questioning a prominent family’s property holdings and proposing unconventional solutions to social issues, raising concerns about his judicial temperament.
Translated from the Bengali original by Aparna Bhattacharya.
