Howrah (West Bengal) [India], July 14 : Senior Secondary Commission (SSC) teachers who lost their jobs after the Calcutta High Court decisison in 2024, launched a protest march 'Nabanno Abhiyan' in Howrah towards the Bengal Secretariat under the banner of 'Jogya Shikshak Shikshika Adhikar Mancha'.
They lost their jobs following a Supreme Court judgment which held that the whole appointment process was tainted.
The teachers who lost their jobs staged several protest against the Mamata Banerjee's government demanding justice.
Calcutta High Court in April, 2024 declared all appointments null and void in the selection of candidates in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided secondary and higher secondary schools through a 2016 recruitment process.
The court further ordered that those who were recruited illegally will have to return their salary.
All appointments by the SSC in the categories of teachers of classes 9, 10, 11 and 12 and group-C and D staffers through the State Level Selection Test-2016 (SLST) where irregularities were found have also been declared null and void.
A bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar found that the West Bengal SSC's selection process was based on large-scale manipulations and fraud.
"In our opinion, this is a case wherein the entire selection process has been vitiated and tainted beyond resolution. Manipulations and frauds on a large scale, coupled with the attempted cover-up, have dented the selection process beyond repair and partial redemption. The credibility and legitimacy of the selection are denuded," the apex court bench stated in its judgement.
The apex court found no reason to interfere with the High Court's direction that the services of "tainted" candidates must be terminated and that they should be required to refund any salaries/payments received.
"Since their appointments were the result of fraud, this amounts to cheating. Therefore, we see no justification to alter this direction", the bench added.