The sacked teachers, who have been allowed to return to schools until the end of the year, on Wednesday assembled at the Espnade’s Y-channel to obtain the signs on Vakalatnama, a legal document authorising a lawyer to represent a client in court proceedings, ahead of filing a review petition.

Summer vacation started at the government and aided schools on Wednesday.

The teachers who have been segregated as “not found to be specifically tainted” said they cannot sit idly just because they have been allowed to return to schools for the time being.

“We look forward to being reinstated with full honours and working till 60 years of age, instead of getting a chance to work until December-end. We will file a review petition against the Supreme Court’s April 3 order. So we are taking signatures on the Vakalatnama,” said Chinmoy Mandal, the joint convener of the Deserving Teachers’ Rights Forum.

“We want to file the review petition in the second week of May,” he said.

On Wednesday, 250 segregated teachers gathered at the Y-channel to collect the signatures.

On April 3, the apex court had terminated the jobs of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff because the entire recruitment process held by the school service commission in 2016 was “vitiated” and “tainted beyond recognition.”

Papers containing the declaration, “I/we (name of the signatory) do hereby appoint retain (name of the advocate) to act and appear for me/ us in the above suit/review,” were circulated among the 250 teachers.

These teachers are from among 15,403 teachers who were segregated as “found to be not specifically tainted” following the Supreme Court’s April 17 order in response to a miscellaneous petition from the state secondary board.

The board sought a reprieve for 17,206 teachers so that the classes could be held in the ongoing academic year.

“What we want is a permanent relief. So the process of getting the signatures on the Vakalatnama of all 15,403 teachers has started. This exercise is also being held in the districts,” said Mandal, a teacher at a school in Halisahar, North 24-Parganas.

The school service commission has eliminated the names of 1,804 teachers from the list of 17,206 teachers because their appointments were mired in illegalities, sources said. A protesting teacher said that they are in touch with the school education department, which has also decided to file a review petition before the Supreme Court.

SSC chairperson Siddhartha Majumdar reached Delhi on Wednesday to hold discussions with lawyers before filing the review petition.

“I spoke to the SSC chairperson on Wednesday afternoon to discuss legal points of mutual interest,” Mandal told The Telegraph.

A teacher said before the Supreme Court that they would argue that since the data about their OMR sheets, which the CBI procured, matched those uploaded on the commission’s server, their appointments could not be doubted.

“The data showed that we got appointed after meeting all the criteria,” said a teacher.