A delegation of sacked school teachers met the school service commission chairperson on Thursday, demanding that the process of submitting applications for the fresh hiring process be put on hold.

The SSC, which has scheduled the online application process to begin on June 16 and close on July 14, cannot do that, said an official.

The delegation of 13 teachers told the chairperson that as the Supreme Court has yet to hear the review petitions filed by both the state government and the SSC challenging its order on terminating their jobs, the hiring exercise should not be started immediately.

The apex court terminated the jobs of 17,206 secondary and higher secondary school teachers on April 3 because it deemed the 2016 recruitment process “vitiated”.

In a modified order on April 17, it said 15,403 teachers “found not specifically tainted” would work till December 31, but they had to clear the fresh tests to retain their jobs beyond that.

A section of these teachers are opposing the start of the selection process citing that the state government and the SSC have sought reviews of the termination order.

The apex court resumes on July 15 after the end of summer recess.

An education department official said the delegation met the SSC chairperson at Bikash Bhavan, the education secretariat, on Thursday.

The teachers were told the start of the exercise on June 16 could not be pushed back or put on hold.

“The commission has submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court on initiating the fresh recruitment drive with the details of the recruitment calendar. The Supreme Court said in its order on April 17 that the commission has to apprise the court on
the fresh recruitment process by May 31. The dates have been finalised in accordance with the calendar...,” he said.

SSC chairperson Siddhartha Majumder declined comment.

An SSC official hinted at the possibility of pushing back the last date for submission of forms by a week.

“If the court accepts the petitions, we don’t have to go ahead with the recruitment drive. But till that happens, we cannot put the start of the recruitment process on hold,” he said.

Before the delegation met the SSC chairperson, around 2,000 aggrieved teachers marched towards Acharya Sadan, the SSC headquarters in Salt Lake, around noon as a mark of protest.

Many of these teachers remained seated outside the SSC headquarters till late
on Thursday night. The leaders of the protesting teachers went into a huddle to decide
on their next course of action.

The SSC has contended in its petition that when segregation of the “not specifically tainted” was possible, it was not clear why the Supreme Court ordered en masse termination of all teachers.

The state government has said it is not fair to sacrifice the jobs of several thousand teachers for the “illegalities” committed in the recruitment of some by the SSC.

Two summoned

Two of the sacked teachers were summoned to Bidhannagar (north) police station on Thursday in connection with the vandalism at Bikash Bhavan on May 15.

These two had been named in an FIR police had drawn against 15 teachers.

The two were questioned for an hour and then allowed to go home.