The sacked school teachers, who are scheduled to write the fresh recruitment tests in September to retain their jobs, have been given the maximum possible relaxations in the screening process and no further advantages would be provided to them, an education department official said on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court, in its order to sack 17,206 teachers in April, said those terminated would be given age relaxation while appearing for the fresh selection test. In-service teachers were allotted 10 marks for their prior teaching experience and 10 marks for lecture demonstrations.
In a 100-mark recruitment test, these are the highest possible relaxations that could be offered, said the official.
Many sacked teachers are demanding further relaxations, citing a part of the Supreme Court’s August 19 order.
The part of the apex court August 19 order, which binned the petitions seeking reviews of the termination order, said: “However, the interests of the appointed candidates who were untainted were sought to be protected to the greatest extent possible, as is evident from the concluding paragraphs of the judgement.”
Mirajul Hossain, a teacher who lost his job following the sack order and will write the tests due in September, said: “The state government and the SSC should move the Supreme Court seeking a modification on what additional relaxations could be given to protect the interest of the untainted candidates like us to the greatest extent possible”.
An education department official said their decision to offer 10 marks for prior teaching experience — intended to help the sacked teachers — had already been challenged in the Calcutta High Court.
“Since the court did not object to the relaxations, we could go ahead with the selection process. If further relaxations are offered, there are possibilities that they would be challenged in the court of law. This would only derail the recruitment process,” the official said.
The teachers who had been sacked on April 3 because of a “vitiated” recruitment process but had been designated as “specifically not found to be tainted” are allowed to go to schools till December 31 with their salaries.
But they needed to write the fresh selections, scheduled on September 7 (for secondary level) and on September 14 (for higher secondary level), to retain their jobs.
The high court on July 16 upheld the state school service’s authority to conduct teacher recruitment tests under its preferred rules, granting relaxation to the in-service teachers, dismissing petitions that sought to force the use of 2016 regulations that did not provide any additional relief.
A section of candidates who had cracked the state-level selection tests (SLST) in 2016 by the SSC, but did not get jobs as assistant teachers because of the alleged irregularities in the screening mechanism, moved the court challenging the relaxations.
The relaxations, they argued, created an unfair advantage.
The division bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Smita De said in its July 16 written order: “If the Government felt that the experience gained by the candidates is relevant, the court cannot take a different view in judicial review....The criteria laid down in the recruitment process of 2025 were intended to select the best of the candidates.”
An SSC official said they do not want to get into any more legal entanglement and are focusing on holding the tests.