A section of dismissed teachers marched to the school service commission (SSC) office in Salt Lake on Wednesday, demanding that the ongoing recruitment process to appoint schoolteachers be put on hold.

According to the protesting teachers, sacked by the Supreme Court on April 3, the recruitment process should be put on hold considering that the court is likely to hear petitions challenging the job termination order after it opens on July 14, following the end of the summer recess.

“The state government and the SSC have filed petitions seeking a review of the April 3 order. Why could the state government not wait till the petition is heard at the Supreme Court before starting the recruitment process?”
asked Achintya Das, a sacked teacher.

The SSC started receiving application forms from June 16 to hold a fresh recruitment test. The exercise will continue till July 14. The selection test is scheduled to be held in the first week of September.

The protesting teachers raised the demand for the publication of a list containing the names of the teachers who had been recruited fairly.

A teacher said the state government in its petition said that the Supreme Court, while en masse terminating jobs, failed to appreciate that over 18,000 candidates “not specifically found tainted” have also been made to suffer “for the alleged illegality committed by the SSC in the selection process in respect of certain other tainted candidates”.

The apex court terminated the jobs of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching employees on April 3.

“This means that a large number of the teachers and non-teaching employees had been recruited fairly. We want the SSC to publish the list of these teachers before the review petition is heard. This would strengthen our case when the review petition is heard,” said a teacher.

According to the teachers, they don’t want to appear for a fresh selection test as they had been recruited fairly.

“We have seen that those who were found guilty were asked to return their salaries with interest. Even Calcutta High Court had said that they should be removed from their posts. But instead of taking action against them, those who are untainted are being asked to sit for a re-test,” said Mrinmoy Mondal, a computer science teacher at Nimta High School in Howrah.