The Bengal education department on Tuesday shared with the district inspectors of schools lists of sacked teachers “not specifically found to be tainted”.
An official said the inspectors were supposed to forward the names to the school headmasters in their respective districts so that the listed teachers could get back to work. The list is said to have 15,400 names. However, the government does not appear keen to make the list public.
“The West Bengal School Service Commission has sent the lists of the assistant teachers, who were appointed for Classes IX and X and Classes XI and XII under the respective selection process of SLST 2016 and who have not been specifically found to be tainted vide their e-mail dated 22.04.2025. The lists are forwarded for taking necessary action,” said a letter signed by the commissioner of school education.
The communication sets the ball rolling for the sacked teachers to rejoin duty in keeping with a Supreme Court order.
Thousands of sacked teachers and school staff have laid siege to the school service commission’s office in Salt Lake since Monday, protesting the government’s failure to come out with a list segregating the tainted from those not “specifically tainted”.
A delegation of the protesting teachers, who went inside the office on Tuesday to meet the officials, vowed to continue their protest.
Earlier in the day, chief minister Mamata Banerjee urged the sacked teachers to call off their agitation and get back to work. She also assured them that they would continue to get their salaries.
“Why are you sitting in this heat? You go back to school. Your jobs were scrapped and salaries stopped by the Supreme Court. We filed a petition so that you can get your salaries. The salary will reach you according to the system,” the chief minister said at a government programme in West Midnapore.
The state government is likely to file a review petition in the Supreme Court, Mamata said.
On April 3, the apex court cancelled en masse the appointments of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching school staff, recruited through the 2016 selection test, saying the entire process had been “vitiated”. On April 17, the Supreme Court allowed the sacked but “not specifically found to be tainted” teachers to continue in their posts till December 31, by when a fresh recruitment process must be completed.
The top court, however, gave no such relief to the Group C and Group D employees, a section of whom has been demonstrating outside the office of the state secondary education board.
"Do not let anyone instigate you. For the Group C and D jobs that have been scrapped, let us seek legal counsel. We will definitely file another review petition if needed. Do not trust those who took your jobs away. Have faith in those who got your jobs back and can get your jobs back in the coming days,” Mamata said.
The state government and the board had moved applications saying the sudden removal of thousands of teachers would cripple the school education system.
Soon after Mamata’s message, state education minister Bratya Basu told a news conference that a list — segregating the tainted and the “not specifically found to be tainted” — was unlikely to come out in the public domain.
The Supreme Court has made no mention of any such list, and top lawyers — the ones that the dismissed employees want to represent them in court — have cautioned against publishing any such list, Basu said.
He appeared to suggest that the state government had a clear idea of the number of teachers who could get back to work and get their salaries and that it was committed to protecting the interests of the teachers as well as the non-teaching staff.
He was echoing Mamata, who had earlier in the day asked the protesters to stop thinking about “tainted and untainted candidates”.
“I was on the phone till midnight. Some of them (protesters) are rigid. They are demanding that a list segregating the tainted and untainted candidates be published. Why are you bothered? Why are you getting provoked by others? You don't need to get involved in finding out who is tainted and who is not. It is the state government's responsibility. The court is there to see to it. You have a job. You need to keep it. You need to get a timely salary. Other issues, you leave to us,” she said.
“We have to abide by the law. But the law opens new doors. I will definitely not want unemployment to rise in my state. Teachers, I want to tell you, please return to school and resume taking classes without worrying. You don’t have to think about salary. The state government will work for you within the ambit of law. But you must keep in mind that people instigating you will not give your salaries. The government will,” the chief minister said.