The authorities of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya at Titabor in Upper Assam’s Jorhat district terminated the service of a newly recruited female contractual teacher, forcing many to think that the incident was connected to her stand against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The teacher, Bondita Borah, received the termination letter from the principal of the school Mukesh Kumar on Tuesday. Borah had joined the school on August 13 as a faculty-cum-system administrator.

The students of the residential school had registered their protest against the CAA at the morning assembly on December 11, with a speech, recitation, donning gamosas and shouting “Jai Aai Asom”.

On December 11 — the day the Rajya Sabha passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) — Assam witnessed a complete shutdown in protest against the law.

Borah told The Telegraph that as per the request of the students she had videographed their protest. She said after some time she found some students crying.

“When I asked, the students told me that a chemistry teacher of the school had described the Assamese people as ‘illiterate’ for opposing the CAA. I said in that case the teacher should apologise. Principal sir somehow came to know about my comments.

“He called me to his chamber. I told him that I had said so to persuade the students, as the issue was a sensitive one. Later, the teacher was made to apologise for his comment,” she said.

Borah said days after December 11, the school authorities did a kind of evaluation of all teachers by checking notes maintained on the respective subjects.

“As computer is a practical-based subject and I had also been engaged in all computer-related work of the school, besides teaching, there was not much notes to show,” she said.

Following that the school authorities showcaused Borah.

She responded on Tuesday only to receive her termination letter with immediate effect.

Borah said she was opposed to the CAB, which later became the CAA. “My WhatsApp status was against CAB. However, I never participated at any anti-CAB or anti-CAA protest,” she said.

When contacted, Kumar said Borah’s termination notice was connected with “performance” and was not related to any anti-CAA protest.

The Titabor regional committee of the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) met Kumar on Wednesday and gave him two days to reinstate Borah.

Some students of the schools told the media later that Borah’s anti-CAA stand led to termination of her service.

The CAA grants Indian citizenship to persons belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who entered India before December 31, 2014, following religious persecution.