Bengal: Big blow to Madrasa teachers and employees, Supreme Court rejects petition for regularization

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the petitions of teachers and staff of government-aided madrassas of West Bengal. All these people had appealed against not getting permanent job and regular salary under the government grant scheme. This decision was taken by a committee formed by the Supreme Court in 2023. The bench of Justice Dipankar Dutta and Justice AG Masih gave this decision. The court said that as per earlier orders, it had examined the cases of 13 affected petitioners out of more than 350 petitioners to see whether the cases of any of them deserve relief. The court found that there was no such case.

The court said, “We have proceeded on the basis that if any one of these 13 petitioners could convince us to take a decision in our favor, we would have investigated the remaining cases also. Unfortunately, none of the 13 petitioners could influence us.” Therefore, the court rejected all the petitions before it.

Case related to 40 writ petitions

This case was related to more than 40 writ petitions filed by about 361 people, who claimed that they were appointed as teachers or non-teaching staff in different madrassas of West Bengal. These petitions were filed under Article 32 of the Constitution.

The dispute is related to the ‘West Bengal Madrassa Service Commission Act, 2008’, under which a statutory commission was formed to recommend the appointment of teachers in recognized madrassas.

Case related to Madrasa Service Commission Act

This dispute is related to the ‘West Bengal Madrassa Service Commission Act, 2008’, under which a statutory commission was formed to recommend the appointment of teachers in recognized madrassas. In 2014, the Act was struck down by a single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court. In 2015, the Division Bench had approved this decision. However, the Supreme Court stayed the Division Bench’s decision in March 2016. On January 6, 2020, ‘SK. Mo. In the case ‘Rafiq vs. Managing Committee, Contai Rehmaniya High Madrasa’, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of the 2008 Act.