Protesting teachers in Bengal dejected after Supreme Court junks review petition

Protesting teachers dejected after the Supreme Court rejected multiple review petitions to reconsider its April 3 judgement which upheld the annulment of the appointment of nearly 24,000 school staff, including teachers and non-teaching staff. Disappointed teachers said that both the West Bengal State government and the judicial system have ‘failed’ them. 

In an order on August 5 made public on August 19, the apex court said, “No doubt, invalidation of such untainted appointments would lead to heartburn and anguish, which the Court was fully conscious of, but protecting the purity of the selection process is paramount and necessarily has to be given the highest priority.” 

Several ‘untainted’ teachers have questioned the judgement, questioning that the top court should have heard the review petitions if it was so ‘anguished’ by the teachers’ plight.

Chinmoy Mondal, a leader of the Jogyo Shikkhok Shikkhika Adhikar Mancha (JSSAM) said that only providing age relaxation and forcing the ‘untainted’ candidates like him and 15,000 others to reappear for the recruitment process is disappointing. “We got no grace marks for our years of work, no seat reservations, then what relaxation did we get?” Mr. Mondal said on Wednesday (August 20, 2025). 

More than 180-200 review petitions were filed at the Supreme Court urging the top judiciary to reconsider their judgement. The order also stated, “These review petitions which, in effect, seek a re-hearing of the entire matter on merits, therefore, do not deserve to be entertained as all relevant aspects have already been examined and considered comprehensively.” 

The ‘untainted’ teachers also asked for an extension on the re-examination date which is scheduled to be held on September 7 and 14. “We hardly have 2-3 weeks left to prepare for the exams. Even if we study for 20 hours a day, we will not make it,” Mr. Mondal said. 

Mehboob Mondal, another teacher and leader of JSSAM said that around 13,000 of the ‘untainted’ teachers filled up the new recruitment form but nearly 3,000 could not as the new recruitment rules were different from the ones they followed during the 2016 recruitment drive. 

“The Indian judicial system is not working according to the constitution. If the court has all evidence of who the ‘untainted’ candidates are, then why did they do this to us? They are doing this to protect the real criminals and killing us in the process. Both government and the judiciary have failed us,” Mr. Mondal told The Hindu. 

The teachers are now preparing to reappear for the exam nine years after they appeared for the same exam conducted by the West Bengal School Service Commission in 2016. However, this time, they will have to compete with thousands of other new and young candidates despite having served in State-run public schools for the past 7-8 years. 

On April 3, the Supreme Court upheld the Calcutta High Court order which cancelled the appointment of all candidates in the 2016 panel. However, on April 17, the apex court allowed ‘untainted’ candidates to continue in service until December 31, or until a fresh selection process is completed, but the same relaxation was not given to the non-teaching staff neither have any new re-recruitment notification been issued for the non-teaching staff. The thousands of non-teaching staff have not received any salary since last April and on multiple occasions have said that their families are struggling to make ends meet.