- (1.) This bunch of 30 (thirty) writ petitions are at the instance of part-time teachers of non-Government higher secondary schools. Each of the 30 (thirty) petitioners has laid claim to 'equal pay for equal work' at par with the full-time permanent teachers appointed on the basis of the recommendations of the relevant Regional School Service Commissions (hereafter the Regional Commissions) as well as 'leave' benefits.
(2.) In all the writ petitions, orders passed by the Commissioner of School Education, West Bengal (hereafter the Commissioner) of varying dates rejecting the claims of the petitioners are under challenge. The claim of each petitioner for 'equal pay for equal work' has been rejected primarily on the ground that the source of recruitment of part-time teachers and full-time permanent teachers is not one and the same. That apart, their prayer for casual leave and medical leave was rejected on the ground that the relevant Government Order dated July 28, 2010 extending such benefit had been withdrawn.
(3.) Prior to November 1, 1997, recruitment of teaching staff in non-Government aided and unaided schools was regulated by the guidelines issued from time to time by the Director of School Education, West Bengal. For achieving vested interests, members of the Managing Committee of such schools started indulging in malpractices. Towards the end of the last century corruption assumed such enormous proportion that the need to eradicate it completely from the field of recruitment of teachers was seriously felt. The will of the people in this behalf was expressed by the legislature by enacting the West Bengal School Service Commission Act, 1997 (hereafter the Act), creating the West Bengal Central School Service Commission (hereafter the Central Commission) and the Regional Commissions. The Central Commission and the Regional Commissions were required to act in tandem for searching out the best talent in the State and to recommend them for ultimate appointment as teachers. The system has been in vogue for nearly two decades and although not entirely but to a large extent it has been possible to arrest corruption that was prevalent in recruitment of teachers towards the end of the eighties and major portion of the nineties of the last century.;