The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a batch of writ petitions filed by teachers and non-teaching employees of recognised Madrasas in West Bengal challenging the rejection of their claims for regularisation and grant-in-aid benefits by a court-appointed committee.
The Bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Augustine George Masih held that none of the petitioners whose cases were examined had made out a case for relief and, consequently, dismissed all the petitions. The Court noted that pursuant to its earlier orders, it had scrutinised the claims of 13 petitioners selected from a pool of more than 350 petitioners to determine whether any individual case warranted interference.
Extending the findings to all involved parties, the Bench observed that because the claims of the 13 scrutinised petitioners failed, the remaining petitions lacked merit as well. The Court concluded that all writ petitions lacked merit and therefore dismissed them.
The litigation involved over 40 writ petitions filed under Article 32 of the Constitution by around 361 persons claiming to have been appointed as teachers and non-teaching staff in recognised Madrasas across West Bengal.
The dispute traces its origin to the West Bengal Madrasah Service Commission Act, 2008, which established a statutory commission to recommend appointments to recognised Madrasas. The legislation was struck down by a Single Judge of the Calcutta High Court in 2014, a decision affirmed by a Division Bench in 2015. The Supreme Court stayed the High Court’s judgment in March 2016 and, in Sk. Md. Rafique v. Managing Committee, Contai Rahamania High Madrasah(2020), ultimately upheld the constitutional validity of the 2008 Act.
The controversy thereafter centred on appointments made during the interregnum between the Calcutta High Court’s 2015 judgment and the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision. In February 2023, the apex court constituted a committee to examine the validity of such appointments. The committee concluded that the appointments were invalid, prompting the affected employees to challenge its findings before the Supreme Court.
During the pendency of the proceedings, the Court had granted interim protection to the petitioners’ services in August 2024. In May 2025, it further directed the State government to continue paying salaries to those petitioners who were actually discharging teaching duties, subject to the outcome of the case.
The principal issues before the Court were whether the committee had rightly rejected the petitioners’ claims and whether they were entitled to recognition of their appointments, continuation in service, and payment of salaries and allowances under the State government’s grant-in-aid scheme. Answering these questions against the petitioners, the Supreme Court dismissed the entire batch of petitions.
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