Cash-for-job case: Intervention of Calcutta HC sought on use of force against teachers; police file counter case

 An advocate of Calcutta High Court on Friday sought suo motu intervention of the same court in the matter of “unprovoked” and “ruthless” cane-charge by police on protesting teachers at the West Bengal education department headquarters.

IANS, 16 May 2025 : An advocate of Calcutta High Court on Friday sought suo motu intervention of the same court in the matter of “unprovoked” and “ruthless” cane-charge by police on protesting teachers at the West Bengal education department headquarters.

The secondary and higher secondary teachers from state-run schools in West Bengal who have lost their jobs following a Supreme Court order last month on the cash-for-job case, were protesting in front of the education department headquarters and had gheraoed it on Thursday.

The said advocate, Rajnil Mukhopadhyay, had requested the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice, T.S Sivagnanam, seeking the court's intervention in the matter and claimed that the cops of Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate resorted to excesses on Thursday night on the genuine teachers who had been exercising their democratic rights to protest against injustice done to them by the state government.

Several protesting teachers received severe head and body injuries following the sudden police action on Thursday night at around 10 p.m.

Meanwhile, Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate has filed a sumo motu case against those protesting teachers, accusing them of destruction of public property, obstructing state government personnel from performing their duties, and launching attacks on police.

However, the protesting teachers united under the ‘Jogyo Shikhok-Shikkika Adhikar Mancha (Genuine Teachers’ Rights Forum)’, have vehemently denied the charges brought by the cops.

“We were demonstrating peacefully, and there had not been a single instance of destruction of public property by any of the protesters. The police are using some out-of-context pictures to frame us. But they will not be successful in unnerving us through such conspiracies. We will continue with our protests till our last breath unless our demands in the matter are fulfilled,” said a forum representative.

Their main demand is that the state government and West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) should immediately publish lists segregating the ‘genuine’ candidates from the ‘tainted’ ones, who had paid money for getting school jobs.

They also alleged that the state government and WBSSC were deliberately refraining from publishing the segregated lists with the sole intention of protecting the ‘tainted’ candidates.

On April 3 this year, the Supreme Court’s Division Bench of erstwhile Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar had upheld a previous order by the Calcutta High Court’s Division Bench of Justice Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi cancelling 25,753 school jobs in West Bengal.

The apex court also accepted the observation of the Calcutta High Court that the entire panel of 25,753 candidates had to be cancelled because of the failure of the state government and the commission to segregate the ‘untainted’ candidates from the ‘tainted’ ones.

The state government and WBSSC had already filed review petitions at the apex court on this issue.