20-07-2026 Item No.18 Subrata Bhattacharyya AR(C) IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction Appellate Side WPA No.25278 of 2024 Jayanta Mandal -vs- The State of West Bengal & Ors. Mr. Sarajit Sen Mr. Mrinal Kanti Sardar Mr. Pradip Kumar Ghosh Ms. Aparna Mondal …for the petitioner Ms. Tapasi Palit Sinha Mr. Monojit Chakraborty …for the State Mr. Sakti Pada Jana Mr. Subhojyoti Das …for the school 1. The petitioner is an assistant teacher of a Government aided school. He was arrested in connection with a criminal case in the year 2020. On being released on bail, he joined the school. The petitioner, however, did not intimate the school the reason for his absence for a period of twenty-eight days when he was in custody. Later on, after the school got to know about the petitioner’s arrest, the school intimated the same to the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education. 2. The President of the ad hoc committee of the Board issued an order of suspension dated September 9, 2024 to the petitioner with retrospective effect. The same is impugned in the instant writ petition. 3. Submission of the petitioner is that as the criminal case is not related to his service, accordingly, the order of suspension is bad and liable to be set aside immediately. 4. In support of such submission, learned counsel for the petitioner relies on the judgment delivered by this Court in the matter of Sri Malay Kumar Laha v. Visva Bharati & Ors. reported in 2006 (2) CLJ (Cal) 456. 5. Learned counsel for the school authority submits, upon instructions, that the petitioner suppressed the fact of arrest; and that being enlarged on bail, he took casual leave and thereafter joined duty. The school was unaware of his arrest. However, the petitioner is yet to apply before the Board seeking revocation of his suspension. 6. Upon hearing the respective submissions on behalf of the parties and on perusal of the documents placed before this Court, I dispose of the writ petition with an observation that it will be open for the petitioner to apply before the Board seeking revocation of the order of suspension along with all documents in support of his payer. 7. In the event of submission of such application, the Board shall consider the same in accordance with law and in line with the judgment of Moloy Kumar Laha (supra), after giving a reasonable opportunity of hearing to all the necessary parties at the earliest but positively within a period of twelve weeks from the date of submission of the application. 8. The fate of the application shall be made known to the petitioner immediately thereafter. 9. Learned counsel for the petitioner is directed to forward a copy of the aforesaid judgment to the Board at the time of submission of the application 2 seeking revocation of suspension. 10. All parties are to act on the server copy of this order duly downloaded from the official website of this court. 11. Certified copy of the server copy of this order, if applied for, shall be made available to the parties. [Amrita Sinha, J] 3