Kolkata, Jun 30 (IANS): In a setback for the West Bengal government, the Calcutta High Court, on Wednesday, stayed the interview process of upper primary teachers, admitting that there was lack of transparency in the interview list. With this the recruitment of around 14,500 teachers in the upper primary section is in jeopardy.

The petition was filed by some aspirant teachers who alleged that some people got called for the interview who had much lower marks and the aspirants with higher marks were left out. The matter was being heard by Abhijit Gangopadhyay. The matter will again come up for hearing on Friday.

According to the petition filed by some aspiring teachers, the interview list published by the School Service Commission has no cut-off marks and it has been found that some aspirants with lower marks could make it to the interview when many aspirants who have much higher marks have been left out. Not only that, some names that were in the merit list are not now in the interview list. The petitioners alleged nepotism and lack of transparency in the interview list.

"There are many students mainly of political science and Sanskrit who are feeling deprived. In many cases the academic numbers and other numbers are not added with the examinees' marks scored in TET (Teachers Examination Test). Somewhere there has been injustice and so the petitioners thought to move the court," lawyer Sudipta Das Gupta said.

The state government published the list after more than five years where 14,339 upper primary teachers are to be recruited. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee promised before the election that she would complete the process of recruitment after she came to power and according to the SSC, published the interview list of little more than 15,000 aspirants. Now after the case, the recruitment process and the life of so many people are in jeopardy.