PROTESTING TEACHERS SUSPEND AGITATION, BUT FUTURE UNCERTAIN

The protest is being paused temporarily to allow the forum's legal experts to prepare the petition for the Supreme Court.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

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.