Stung by Thursday’s Supreme Court order cancelling nearly 26,000 school jobs in Bengal, chief minister Mamata Banerjee told a news conference that her government would ask the school service commission to complete the fresh recruitment process within three months to fill vacancies.

“The SSC will act following what the Supreme Court has said. They will carry out the process in the next three months. Those identified as untainted by the Supreme Court won’t have to return any money,” she said at Nabanna, the state secretariat.

The court has said those identified as “tainted” would have to return the money they have earned so far.

Mamata said her government would stand by those who would lose their jobs. “It is not only 25,000 losing their jobs. It is about 25,000 families involving lakhs of people. Our government will stand by these families,” she said.

The state is still mulling a possible legal recourse. “Our lawyers will also review. I don’t want to get into the details now,” Mamata said.

On April 7, the chief minister will meet the “deserving candidates” who have lost their jobs.

“I know the deprived teachers have formed a platform to get justice. They want to assemble at a common venue. They wanted the education minister, the chief minister, the chief secretary and lawyers to attend their assembly. I have responded to their appeal. I will meet them at Netaji Indoor stadium at 12.15pm on April 7,” Mamata said.

“We will tell them not to lose their cool. Don’t feel any pressure. We will try to ensure that the crisis ends at the earliest. We will do everything the court has ordered. I want to iterate that the state government will stand by those deserving candidates who have been deprived,” Mamata said.

“We will accept the court order. I have told the education minister to pass on what the state government feels on this issue to the school service commission. The commission is an autonomous body. Let the commission proceed on this issue on their own,” she added.

SSC chairperson Siddartha Majumdar told Metro: “Let us first study the court order in detail. Then we will decide our course of action.”

Earlier in the morning, a division bench led by the Chief Justice of India upheld a Calcutta High Court order terminating the jobs of 12,905 assistant teachers for Classes IX and X; 5,712 assistant teachers for Classes XI and XII; 2,076 Group-C staff; and 3,956 Group-D staff.

Mamata held an emergency cabinet meeting before the news conference.

The chief minister said the termination of jobs will amount to the destruction of the education system.

“All of you know that Classes IX, X, XI and XII are considered gateways to higher education. Many of those who lost their jobs were evaluating Madhyamik (secondary) and Higher Secondary answer scripts. If you remove so many teachers, who will run the schools? Do they intend to destroy the system?” Mamata said.

One higher secondary school in the remote Sunderbans lost seven out of its 10 teachers.

Pratap Ray Chaudhuri, an English teacher at the school, was at Shahid Minar in Calcutta on Thursday.

“Our school had ten teachers. From Thursday, the number has come down to three. Our school has an upper primary section (Classes V to VIII), secondary, and higher secondary sections with over 1000 students. I wonder how the school will run henceforth,” Ray Chaudhuri said. He is a member of the deserving teachers’ platform.