Mita Mukherjee
The leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, has written to President Droupadi Murmu requesting her to ensure that “untainted” teachers in Bengal who had secured jobs by fair means and have been sacked by a Supreme Court order, do not lose their jobs.
Gandhi said in his letter, “Madam you have served as a teacher yourself. I am sure you understand the enormous human cost of this injustice– to the teachers, their families and their students. I request you to kindly consider their request favourably and urge the government to intervene in the matter to ensure that candidates selected through fair means are allowed to continue.”
Rahul forwarded a representation he had received from the Shikshak Shikshika Adhikar Manch (IX-X), a platform of affected teachers who had met and urged him to write to the President seeking her representation.
Describing the entire selection process adopted by the Bengal State School Service Commission as ” tainted beyond resolution”, the Supreme Court on April 3 upheld the Calcutta High Court order cancelling the appointments of 25,753 teachers of state-aided schools appointed by the basis of 2016 recruitment process. Referring to the judgements, Rahul said both the court had found that candidates were recruited through fair means.
“Both tainted and untainted teachers have lost their jobs. Any crime committed during recruitment should be condemned and the perpetrators must be brought to justice. However, treating teachers selected through fair means on par with tainted teachers is a serious injustice,” he said.
He wrote, “Most untainted teachers have served for nearly a decade. Terminating them will force lakhs of students into classrooms without adequate teachers. Their arbitrary termination will destroy their morale and motivation to serve, and deprive their families of what is often the sole source of income.”
