A platform of schoolteachers who had been holding an indefinite sit-in at Esplanade since December 27, 2024, demanding that the Supreme Court clear the air on who was fairly recruited based on the evidence provided by the school service commission, withdrew their protest “for the time being” on Tuesday.
The Forum for Deserving Teachers’ Rights said they called off the sit-in because they were happy with the state government’s and the commission’s stand. The government and the commission submitted before the Supreme Court on Monday that those who were untainted and deserving must be allowed to continue to work in government-aided schools.
The apex court reserved its verdict on Monday.
The Bengal government and the SSC have argued in the Supreme Court that the entire recruitment process should not be set aside even if there were irregularities in some appointments. They challenged a Calcutta High Court order in April 2024 that scrapped the appointment of 23,123 teaching and non-teaching employees because of alleged illegalities following a CBI probe.
Chinmoy Mondal, spokesperson for the platform, said: “We are satisfied with the stand taken by the state government as they argued in favour of retaining the jobs of those who have been recruited fairly and are teaching in the schools over the past six to seven years.”
Mondal said since board exams have started, it won’t be proper for them to stay away from schools.
Education minister Bratya Basu last week appealed to the teachers to withdraw their protests as Madhyamik and Higher Secondary exams were approaching and said only the Supreme Court had the authority to decide on who had been fairly recruited.
A lawyer representing the SSC told a division bench headed by the Chief Justice of India that out of 23,123 who had been recruited based on a selection test held in 2015, there are complaints of anomalies in the appointment of 5,485.
“This figure was arrived at following the CBI probe. The alleged anomalies stemmed from the jumping of ranks and out-of-panel appointments. The remaining must be allowed to work in their schools. The state government has also supported the stand,” an SSC official told The Telegraph on Tuesday.
Last week, the teachers of the forum attempted to hold a rally to chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s Kalighat residence demanding that the state government and the commission inform the Supreme Court the volume of tainted candidates so the deserving ones could be segregated.
On April 22, 2024, a Calcutta High Court division bench led by Justice Debanshu Basak cancelled the appointment of 23,000 teachers and non-teaching staff at the secondary and higher secondary levels at government-aided schools citing that it was impossible to separate the illegal appointments from the legal ones.
“Based on what has been submitted before the Supreme Court it should not be difficult for the apex court to distinguish those who are deserving. Hopefully, the court will give its judgment factoring in all these submissions,” said Mondal. He has been teaching at a school in Halisahar, North 24-Parganas, for six years.
The Telegraph reported on Monday that the Mamata government contended that the Calcutta High Court order would lead to a “huge vacuum in the State Schools” and “render the education system at a standstill”.
When contacted, SSC chairperson Siddhartha Majumder declined to comment.