The protest is being paused temporarily to allow the forum’s legal
experts to prepare the petition for the Supreme Court.
KOLKATA: Teachers who have been protesting outside the headquarters of the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) for the past week have decided to temporarily suspend their demonstration and return to their schools after the SSC published the list of “eligible” candidates on Friday. The decision was taken after the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) released a list of approximately 16,000 eligible teachers. A leader from the Eligible Teachers’ Forum, Dhrithish Mandal, confirmed that the protest outside the SSC headquarters was being called off. However, he noted that their protest at the Shahid Minar in central Kolkata would continue. “We are withdrawing our protest from the SSC headquarters starting today. Our protest will now continue at Shahid Minar,” Mandal said. He further explained that the forum is now focusing on a review petition that will be filed in the Supreme Court regarding an order from April 3 that invalidated the jobs of nearly 26,000 teachers recruited after the 2016 SSC exam. On April 3, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar noted that irregularities in the selection process “were systemic enough to undermine the sanctity of the process.” “This is the case where the entire selection process is vitiated and tainted beyond resolution. Manipulation and fraud on a large scale, coupled with cover-up, have tainted the selection process beyond repair. The legitimacy and credibility of the selection process are denuded,” CJI Khanna had stated as he pronounced the verdict. Mandal emphasised that the protest was being paused temporarily to allow the forum’s legal experts to prepare the petition for the Supreme Court. “Sitting outside under the blazing sun all day makes it difficult for us to consult legal experts and prepare the petition,” Mandal added. “However, our protest at Shaheed Minar will continue until eligible teachers are reinstated.” Shubhankar Ghosh, another teacher participating in the protest, stated that their demands regarding the inclusion of names of additional teachers in the list would continue. The teachers were demanding that 10 names missing from the list be included. SSC Chairman Siddhartha Majumdar acknowledged the omission, attributing it to a technical error, and promised to release an updated list. Majumdar commented on the situation, saying, “The list has been released, but it is incomplete. However, for now, it is reasonable for those included in the list to return to their schools.” He also noted that the Supreme Court is monitoring the situation. One of the protesting teachers mentioned, “We will resume our protest during the summer holidays, focusing on our remaining demands, which include reinstating teachers up to the age of 60 and releasing the full list of eligible candidates.” The protests began on April 21, when teachers demanded the restoration of jobs up to the retirement age and immediate removal of “tainted” candidates from the 2016 SSC recruitment. The protests intensified earlier this week when the teachers held SSC Chairman Siddhartha Majumdar hostage in his office for over 40 hours, demanding the publication of the OMR sheets and a list of unblemished candidates. The protests followed the Supreme Court’s ruling on April 3, which cancelled the entire 2016 recruitment panel due to widespread irregularities. As a result, around 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff in Stateaided schools lost their jobs. While the Supreme Court allowed the continuation of the services of untainted teachers until December 31, the protesting teachers are calling for a review to extend their employment until retirement. As the thousands of teachers stare at a bleak future, anger against the State Government is also welling up. Sharmishta Bar taught history from classes 9 to 10 at Kulti Government Refugee Colony Girls High School in Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district. After the Court’s verdict, her life has to come to a stop, “I am in trauma now that I do not have a job.” Bar was on the list of untainted candidates. She stated that the ruling was a punishment for her because she did not “deserve this after having all the qualifications required.” Bar is also a mother to a 1-and-half-year-old, and the sole breadwinner of her family. Her husband is currently unemployed. “The Chief Justice of India has brought me to the streets,” she said, “I have a loan to pay. Now that I am jobless, how can I pay it back?” Sharmishtha seemed to bear significant skepticism towards the judicial system. “Judges wear a blindfold before delivering judgements,” she said, “My only fault is that I gave the exam in 2016. If there was a ‘systemic failure’, then punish the system, not us. It’s only us (the untainted teachers) who are being punished.” In Hooghly’s Dhaniakhali, Aditi Kundu, who taught life sciences to class 9 and 10 students and environmental science to class 5 to 8 in Sanktia High School, in Raina block of Purba Bardhaman district, said that she had become hopeless after losing the job. Kundu is still processing what this verdict means for her, “I don’t know who I should blame this on – the State Government and WBSSC’s negligence to provide a properly segregated list, or the Chief Justice of India’s verdict which has taken our means of livelihood.” Kundu alleged that the Supreme Court did not punish the people who were involved in the fraud, and instead only made fairly recruited teachers suffer. “We have been made the scapegoats,” she remarked.
