The high court in an interim order on Monday asked the school service commission to allow a sacked higher secondary schoolteacher who had not participated in counselling for recruitment at the upper primary level (Classes VI to VIII) to take part in the June 11 round.

The candidate said she had not taken part in the counselling scheduled earlier because the Supreme Court had not yet ordered the termination of 25,753 school jobs at the secondary and higher secondary levels.

The apex ordered the termination on April 3 because of a “vitiated” recruitment process in 2016.

SSC chairperson Siddhartha Majumdar said they would comply with the court’s order.

Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya’s order has a larger implication because in a separate case, hundreds of candidates recently moved the court of Justice Partha Sarathi Chatterjee with a similar plea to let them participate in the upper primary counselling that they had earlier skipped.

Justice Chatterjee had asked the SSC to submit an affidavit in three weeks.

Justice Bhattacharyya’s order said: “.... Concerned authority of the West Bengal Central School Service is directed to permit the petitioner to participate in the counselling schedule on June 11 if the petitioner comes within the zone of consideration in terms of her merit position in the list and if petitioner is not a tainted candidate.”

“List the matter under the heading ‘motion’ on 14th July, when the concerned authority of the commission shall file a report in the form of an affidavit disclosing the results of the counselling.... Participation of the petitioner in counselling shall abide by the result of the writ petition.”

The petitioner is among 15,403 teachers categorised as “not specifically found tainted”, and allowed to go to school till December 31 followed a modified Supreme Court order on April 17.

On May 30, the state government published with a fresh recruitment notification adhering to the court’s April 17 order. The in-service teachers will have to clear fresh tests to keep their jobs after December 31.

In its recruitment notification, the school education department said the in-service teachers would get up to 10 marks each for teaching experience and lecture demonstrations in the 100-mark selection test.

Unsure of what lies ahead, many in-service teachers now want a shot at the counselling for the upper primary level.

The SSC had opposed this in court.

The order said the SSC lawyer, Sutanu Patra, said: “If the petitioner is permitted to participate in the counselling... that would make the entire process topsy-turvy.”

“It is submitted that a stand has been taken on the part of the commission that absentee candidates are not to be permitted to participate in the counselling process scheduled on June 11,” Patra said.

The SSC also contended that if the petitioner is permitted to participate in the ensuing counselling, a candidate already chosen for counselling would be ousted.

An SSC official said they started the counselling to recruit 14,000-odd teachers at the upper primary level last year after Calcutta High Court and later the Supreme Court struck down the legal challenges against the process.

The Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) was held in 2016, but no recruitment could be made following a barrage of litigations.

“What if the process gets into the fresh legal challenges to accommodate the candidates who have lost their jobs at the secondary and higher secondary levels and want to be absorbed at the upper primary tier?” an SSC official told The Telegraph.