Dhaka, July 2 -- The Supreme Court has ended a long-running dispute over the seniority and promotion of teachers absorbed into the government primary education system.

The verdict has removed the final legal obstacle to appointing headteachers at around 32,500 government primary schools, lawyers say.

On Thursday, a four-member Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury delivered the ruling.

The case stemmed from a dispute over seniority and promotion between directly recruited teachers and those whose schools were nationalised.

Under recruitment rules framed in 2013, teachers absorbed following the nationalisation of primary schools were to be placed below the last directly recruited teacher in the senio...