Calcutta: Bengal education minister Bratya Basu said he would advise the sacked and aggrieved teachers to return to their schools and start taking classes as the Supreme Court wants them to.

“Today’s order has offered a glimmer of positivity, however dim that may be. I think the teachers should go back to their schools for the sake of the students, as the Supreme Court wanted them to,” Basu told a news conference outside the Assembly on Thursday.

The minister said the state was “grateful” because the apex court had accepted the secondary education board’s plea to let the terminated teachers continue till the completion of a fresh recruitment process or the ongoing academic year that began in January.

The court has asked the state government to complete the recruitment process
by December 31.

Basu said Thursday’s order was a “temporary relief” and the state government was committed to reinstating the teachers with full honours in a legal way. “That will be the ultimate relief. We will be with teachers till then.”

The government is working on a review petition. “You will get to know when we file the review petition. All steps are being taken,” the minister said.

On April 9, Bengal chief secretary Manoj Pant said the state had filed a clarification petition before the Supreme Court, “requesting that the existing system may continue in the interest of the education system and the education of the children in the schools and, of course, in the interest of the teachers”.

Basu on Thursday said: “Today we received that clarification from the Supreme Court.”

About an hour earlier, around 3pm, chief minister Mamata Banerjee, too, expressed relief.

She told a news conference at the state secretariat: “The court has given time till December. It is a relief for now, a temporary relief. We were worried about the teachers’ salaries. The previous order had put a bar on disbursing their salaries. We were looking for alternative ways. We had promised to see that they (teachers) did not face any problems. Responding to our appeal, the court has given us time. Some people are saying that a solution will come... I don’t think it will take that long. If everyone cooperates, we will reach a solution before 2025.”

Mamata said: “I am happy to have been given this time (till December 31). The teachers will get their salaries on time. This is a big relief. This relief now paves the way for relief in the future. I would request the teachers to work diligently. We are with you. Do not worry.”

An official in the education department said that on April 7, when the chief minister had urged the dismissed teaching and non-teaching staff to continue going to school as voluntary service providers, they were unsure whether they could continue disbursing their salaries.

“Even after the salary requisition details were uploaded on the government’s integrated salary portal on April 10 for the disbursement of this month’s salary to the terminated, we were wondering whether this could amount to a contempt of court. Thursday’s order has cleared the air,” the official told Metro.

The secondary board, in its appeal, pleaded that the deserving non-teaching employees be allowed to continue.

But the court gave relief only to the teachers.

Asked about Group C and D employees, Mamata said: “Don’t ask me any question related to the law. Whatever we do, we will do it according to the law. Leave this to me. Let the lawyers come back. I will have a detailed discussion with them. Have patience. Have faith in the legal process and the government. We will definitely find a way.”

The school service commission submitted to the Supreme Court in mid-February that 5,303 candidates were allegedly appointed illegally as teaching and non-teaching staff in secondary and higher secondary sections of government-aided schools.

On April 3, the court scrapped the jobs of all 25,753 on the panel, not differentiating between the tainted and untainted, because it deemed the entire recruitment process “vitiated”.

It is still unclear whether the list of deserving teachers who would now be eligible to return to school would be ascertained based on the figure provided by the commission.

At a meeting with a delegation of sacked school staff at Bikash Bhavan last week, the education minister said the commission, by April 21, could upload a list of the tainted and the not specifically tainted among the sacked employees, subject to legal approval.

“The commission would let you know about this,” Basu said on Thursday.

Dismissed teacher Habibullah Mondal, who wants to return to his school in Murshidabad, said: “Let the government come up with the list of the deserving teachers by April 21 so we can go back.”