The 313 teachers from Darjeeling schools whose appointments by the state government in the name of regularisation of jobs were “set aside and quashed” on Wednesday by Calcutta High Court hit the streets on Thursday in protest.

Most teachers in the rally, whose "voluntary" teacher jobs regularised by the Bengal government in 2019 no longer hold water, said they would continue the legal battle.

Sources said Wednesday's order of Justice Biswajit Basu could be challenged in the division bench of the high court.

Teachers under the banner of the Sanyukta Madhyamik Shikshak Sangathan also held a meeting with Anit Thapa, the chief executive of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) at the Gorkha Rangmanch Bhavan in Darjeeling in the evening.

“I am leaving for Calcutta tomorrow (Friday). I have had a discussion on this issue with the state government. We will fight this issue both politically and legally,” said Thapa, also Trinamool's hill ally.

The teachers’ organisation on Wednesday had called for an indefinite closure of education institutions across the hills to protest the high court order. Following Thapa's request, the organisation decided to withdraw the strike call.

The court order has put to the fore the need to put in a proper system to recruit teachers in the hills.

“I obtained my post-graduate degree in 2006 from North Bengal University (NBU). Please tell me the legal procedure to get a teaching appointment in the hills,” said a teacher at the protest rally.

Voluntary teachers were appointed both by the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) and the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) that replaced the DGHC in 2012 as the main teachers recruitment commission in Bengal, the School Service Commission (SSC) has remained defunct since 2003. The DGHC was formed in 1988.

Sources said the absence of a proper recruitment process led to the hiring of “voluntary” teachers.

Calcutta High Court observed that these teachers were recruited from as early as 1999.

The SSC did hold recruitment drives in Darjeeling in 1998 and 2000. Since 2003, the SSC (Hills) have remained defunct.

Many said while questions on the teacher recruitment process after 2003 were valid as the SSC was scrapped in the hills, many others alleged that even the process to recruit “voluntary teachers” was not transparent.

“Many relatives of people with connections have been appointed as voluntary teachers by management committees of hill schools,” said an observer.

The general view among most people in the hills is that a proper recruitment system must be put in place.

The Bengal government in January this year announced the revival of a regional School Service Commission (SSC) for hills. The state school education department formed a seven-member regional SSC headed by educationist Bijay Kumar Rai, but not much was done since.