New Delhi, Jan 9 (IANS): The Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain a plea by the West Bengal government challenging the maintainability of a PIL demanding a CBI probe into irregularities in selection of over 42,000 assistant teachers in primary schools and asked it to contest it before the high court.

A bench of Justices S.K. Kaul and A.S. Oka said it is not inclined to entertain the state government plea challenging the high court order passed in July last year, and told the state government's counsel that the state can put its defence before the high court.

A petition was filed before the high court alleging irregularities in the recruitment of assistant teachers in primary schools based on the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), 2014. The West Bengal government challenged the Calcutta High Court order, which rejected its preliminary objection questioning the maintainability of this petition.

The state government counsel argued before the apex court that the PIL in a service matter was not maintainable, and it has been filed after eight years of the TET. The counsel contended that another PIL on the issue was earlier dismissed by the high court.

The top court said, "It is open for the state to defend it there (HC). Needless to say, that all questions of law are left open...".

The PIL in the high court alleged irregularities and corruption in the recruitment of assistant teachers in primary schools of the state based on TET 2014.

The PIL alleged that in TET 2014, 42,897 candidates were stated to have been selected but no merit list was ever published disclosing the marks obtained either in the written test or interview. It further added that no reserved category-wise list was published.