Questions, wish list on SSC jobless lips before CM meet
Times of India | 7 April 2025
12 Kolkata: Teachers of state-aided schools, who lost their jobs following the Supreme Court judgment last Thursday, demanded to find out what happened to the copies of their OMR sheets that the School Service Commission reportedly failed to present to the SC. The teachers, whom chief minister Mamata Banerjee will meet at Netaji Indoor Stadium on Monday, said they would plead with her to find a way to save their jobs.
"SSC has to find the mirror images of the OMR sheets. How did they magically disappear? We want them to be found out and placed before the court," said Humayun Firoz, a teacher who has lost his job.
Echoing him, Illias Biswas, another person to lose his job, said, "We don't believe the statement that SSC doesn't have the mirror images of the OMR sheets. We can't understand how the data submitted by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and SSC varied. These things need to be clarified without any delay."
Immediately after the Supreme Court had given its verdict, the chief minister had assured the affected teachers that the state stood by them. Heartened by the promise, the affected teachers said they hoped the state would file a review petition, along with all the substantial documents.
The Supreme Court had stated that the entire selection process for state-aided school teachers was "vitiated and tainted beyond resolution". The judgment said the services of tainted candidates, who were appointed by unfair means, must be terminated, and that they must return the salaries they had received as their appointments were the result of a fraud. Candidates, who were not tainted, did not need to refund their payments.
Citing these points, the affected teachers raised the question that if it was already decided who were tainted and who were not, then why should all be punished?
Qualified Teachers' Rights Platform held a press conference on Sunday, where its convener, Mehebub Mandal, said, "We went to the Supreme Court, seeking justice. We want proper segregation. They did not allow any discussion on the recruitment process. We can't accept such a judgment that has ruined our lives."
He added, "The CM has asked us to meet her, and we will go there. We hope to hear positive words and find ways to get our jobs back. We saw all the political parties, including those shedding crocodile tears. We urge all of you to sit together and find a way to solve this problem." A member of the platform even said that they might choose "mass suicide if the problem was not solved".