The Supreme Court’s decision to dismiss the petitions seeking a review of its April 3 order sacking teachers and staff in Bengal’s state-aided secondary and higher secondary schools has left thousands of “hopeful” teachers “shocked and disappointed”.

The petitions filed by the state government, the school service commission (SSC)
and the sacked teachers were dismissed.

The tests to select teachers will be held on September 7 for the secondary level and on September 14 for the higher secondary level.

The sacked teachers conceded that the Supreme Court’s order had not left them with any choice but to take the tests.

“We are shocked and disappointed with the judgment. The apex court has called us untainted and gone to the extent of saying ‘invalidation of such untainted appointments would lead to heartburn and anguish’. Yet the court did not consider it prudent to review its sack order. Although we applied to write the fresh recruitment tests, we hoped for a review by the country’s highest court,” said Mehboob Mandal, one of the conveners of the Deserving Teachers Rights Forum.

“We have to take the test so that we can keep our jobs beyond December 31,” Mandal said.

In a moderated order on April 17, the Supreme Court said that out of the 17,206 sacked teachers, those “found to be not specifically tainted” would be allowed to continue their jobs till December 31, but they will have to crack the fresh selection tests if they were to retain their jobs.

On April 22, the SSC identified 15,403 teachers as not specifically tainted.

“Now I have less than a month to prepare for the selection tests due on September 7 and 14,” said Mandal, who used to work as a teacher at the secondary level before being terminated on April 3.

Apart from offering an age relaxation as suggested by the Supreme Court, the state government has said that in-service teachers will get up to 10 marks each in the 100-mark screening tests for teaching experience and lecture demonstrations.

“I fail to understand when the state government and SSC, in their petitions before the Supreme Court, argued that it was possible to segregate the tainted and the untainted candidates supporting the stand of the sacked teachers, why did the apex court not pay any heed to the arguments,” Mandal told Metro.

Mirajul Hossain, who used to teach physical science at a city school before April 3,
said the only saving grace is that the Supreme Court had called them “untainted teachers”.

“Ever since the Supreme Court identified us as not found to be specifically tainted, we have been finding it difficult to accept it. Now that status has been done away with. We feel relieved,” said Hossain.

“The Supreme Court said on Tuesday that the interests of the appointed candidates who were untainted were sought to be protected to the greatest extent possible. The state and the SSC must consider what further relaxations can be given to the untainted candidates in the light of this observation by the apex court,” he added.