The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a batch of petitions filed by more than 350 West Bengal madrasa teachers and non-teaching staff who sought regularisation of their appointments along with salaries and allowances under the state’s grant-in-aid scheme.
A bench consisting of Justices Dipankar Datta and A G Masih rejected the pleas after examining a sample of 13 representative claims. The judges noted that they had reviewed the selected cases with the understanding that if even one demonstrated a valid claim, the court would evaluate the remaining petitions. However, the bench concluded that none of the 13 screened cases were persuasive, ruling that all of the writ petitions lacked merit.
Origin Of The Legal Dispute
The litigation stems from opposition to the West Bengal Madrasah Service Commission Act of 2008. The legislation established a centralized statutory commission responsible for recommending teacher appointments in state-aided madrasas, thereby taking away the traditional hiring authority previously held by local madrasa managing committees.
Judicial Back-And-Forth
The Act was struck down as unconstitutional by a single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court in 2014, a decision that was upheld by a division bench of the same court in 2015. The High Court determined that the law violated Article 30 of the Indian Constitution, which protects the rights of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
However, the legal status of the commission changed in January 2020 when the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of the 2008 Act.
Unresolved Appointments
In February 2023, the Supreme Court created an inquiry committee to review the legitimacy of staff appointments made during the interim period between the High Court’s 2015 ruling and the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision.
The committee concluded that the appointments made outside the commission’s framework during those years of legal uncertainty were invalid. This finding prompted the affected teachers and staff members to mount the legal challenge that was ultimately dismissed on Monday.
