Over 500 headmasters and headmistresses of state-run schools, who gathered in Calcutta on Sunday, resolved to upload salary requisitions for dismissed teachers to the Integrated Salary Management System portal unless the state government issued a clear directive on the matter.

Meeting at the Sujata Sadan Auditorium, the heads of institutions decided to go ahead and requisition salaries for teachers whose appointments were invalidated by the Supreme Court’s April 3 verdict.

Despite multiple appeals for clarification on whether salaries would be paid to the teachers since the ruling, no written directive has been issued by the state authorities.

With no clarity on the issue from the state government, the heads of schools unanimously decided to proceed with uploading data for all existing staff without making any segregation of teachers.

At the same time, they said they would again seek written clarifications from the respective district inspectors of schools — designated as Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) — on whether salaries for the invalidated teachers of the 2016 School Service Commission recruitment batch should be processed. Copies of these communications will also be marked to the Commissioner of School Education and the President of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education to maintain transparency.

The Supreme Court bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar, invalidated the appointments of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff recruited through the 2016 SSC, noting that large-scale corruption had vitiated the entire process, making it impossible to distinguish between the deserving and
tainted candidates.

On April 7, chief minister Mamata Banerjee, during a meeting with the jobless teachers in Calcutta, verbally advised them to continue with their duties, asserting that her government had not instructed any discontinuation of service.

However, the absence of any formal written instruction left school heads in a fix, compelling them to upload salary requisitions in order to shift accountability to the higher-ups in the education department and the state government.

“Hundreds of headmasters and headmistresses across the state are in a precarious situation. Ruling party leaders are threatening us with consequences if we hold back salaries, citing the CM’s verbal assurance. The Opposition, meanwhile, is warning us of legal action for violating the Supreme Court’s order, which has clearly invalidated these appointments. In such a situation, we have resolved to leave the final call to the DDOs,” said Chandan Maity, state general secretary of the Advanced Society for Headmasters and Headmistresses (ASFHM), which organised Sunday’s meeting.

The confusion has deepened due to the school education department — being the appointing authority — remaining silent and failing to issue any execution order post-verdict.

“The stoic silence of the state government has made things difficult for us. Every teacher in my school is an indispensable colleague, and denying their salary isn’t my job. But without clarity and given the legal implications, we are compelled to submit requisitions for all staff and let the DI decide the rest,” said Aditi Mukhopadhyay Majumdar, headmistress of Binuria Sumitra Balika Bidyalaya in Santiniketan, Birbhum.

“There are multiple uncertainties surrounding the current status of these teachers. Our repeated written queries to the school education department and the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education have gone unanswered. Even calls and WhatsApp messages to officials concerned have yielded no response,” she added.

A total of 519 school heads attended Sunday’s meeting and adopted the resolution, which appears to be a final push for forcing a concrete response from the state administration.

Some headmasters revealed that legal experts associated with the case have warned them that signing attendance sheets or processing salaries for the invalidated teachers could invite contempt of court charges.

Maity repeated the urgency of implementing the apex court’s order. “The state government and the School Service Commission must immediately act on the Supreme Court’s directive and reinstate eligible, untainted candidates. At the same time, we call for a transparent recruitment process to fill the vacant posts,” he said.