The teaching and non-teaching staff of the government-aided schools whose jobs were terminated by the Supreme Court on April 3 would march to the school service commission’s office on Monday, demanding publication of a segregated list containing the names of those found to be not specifically tainted and the tainted.
The march has assumed significance as the terminated teaching and non-teaching staff do not know their category.
Education minister Bratya Basu had told the representative of the terminated teachers and non-teaching staff on April 11 that the segregated list would be published by April 21 if the legal council of the school education department permitted.
“SSC has to publish a segregated list, else, we won’t go back to our school,” said Subhajit Das, 35, a mathematics teacher for Classes IX and X at Dakshin Arunnagar High School.
“The commission, which has all the data, must certify who the genuine candidates are,” said Searnali Biswas, who taught Life Science from Classes IX to XII at Acharya Prafulla Nagar Atul Krishna Roy Vidyayatan for Girls in Sonarpur.
Many of the protesting teachers who have been holding an indefinite sit-in at Esplanade’s Y-channel since April 12 under the banner of the Deserving Teachers’ Rights Forum will assemble at Salt Lake’s Karunamoyee and march to the Wipro crossing in Sector V, where the SSC’s office is located.
Some non-teaching staff who are staging a protest at Esplanade will March along with the teachers.
They have vowed not to leave the SSC office until their demands are met.
Bikarm Polle, a Group C staff, said: “Our life depends on the segregated list. So the commission has to publish it”.
The Supreme Court split the 25,753 sacked teaching and non-teaching staff into two categories — not found to be specifically tainted and tainted.
The apex court, however, had not defined who among the 25,753 belongs to which category.
The court has said that since there was an attempt to cover up the alleged illegalities, they had to cancel the whole panel because the recruitment process was “vitiated”.
It will be difficult to ascertain who belongs to which group till SSC comes up with the segregated list.
The march is being held four days after the Supreme Court said the teachers
“found to be not specifically tainted”, could return to schools and conduct classes till December 31.
Those taking part in the march said in the absence of clarity, many teachers did not return to the school on Saturday, the first working day since the order on resumption
of duty.
The non-teaching staff — Group C and Group D employees — will also participate in the march to demand a segregated list. The apex court has barred the non-teaching staff from returning to the school despite a petition by the state secondary education board appealing that they, too, be allowed to continue until December 31.
The court had barred them, saying the instances of illegality were “substantially high”.
“We must be told where we stand,” said Moumita Biswas, a Group-C employee.
The dismissed and aggrieved teaching and non-teaching staff at the secondary and higher secondary levels will march to Acharya Sadan, the commission’s office, to realise their demands.
Sources in the commission said the officials were still waiting for a legal clarification from the state government on uploading the segregated list.
“If the clarification advises us to upload the list, then that has to be complied with. Therefore, we have completed all the formalities so that we are not found wanting as and when the approval comes,” the source said.
The source said the commission took a legal opinion on its own.
According to the legal expert, it was not binding on the commission to upload any segregated list distinguishing those not found specifically tainted from the tainted among the sacked teaching and non-teaching staff.
The two orders of the Supreme Court did not say anything about uploading any segregated list.
The orders were delivered on April 3 and April 17,respectively.
“On April 11, the education minister promised a delegation of protesting school employees that SSC would upload a segregated list by April 21, subject to legal clarification. So, while making the necessary preparations, we are awaiting the clarification from the department,” said the source.
“We are studying the orders before giving a nod for the publication of the list,” said an official of the department.
Sudipto Dasgupta, a lawyer representing those who allegedly did not get jobs because of the illegalities in the appointment, said they have filed a contempt petition because the commission has yet to publish a list of those who are tainted.
The case is scheduled to be heard in the court ofJustice Debanshu Basak on Monday.
“The Supreme Court has upheld the Calcutta High Court’s order on en masse removal. Calcutta High Court on April 22 last year ordered the commission to publish the list of the tainted candidates. But the commission is yet to do so. So we have accused the commission of contempt of court,” said Dasgupta.