Teachers hold 'dharna' protest outside SSC office in Kolkata against Mamata Banerjee govt

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], April 11 (ANI): The Senior Secondary Commission (SSC) teachers sat on a 'dharna' protest outside the SSC office in Kolkata on Friday.
The teachers are protesting against the Mamata Banerjee-led state government. Around 26000 teachers have lost their jobs following the SSC recruitment case, which resulted in a Supreme Court judgement that said the whole recruitment process was flawed.
Earlier on Thursday, Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) workers protested against the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led state government over 26,000 teachers losing their jobs in connection with the SSC recruitment scam.
A protesting teacher who lost her job alleged that police attacked them when they went to protest in Howrah.
"26,000 people's jobs were cancelled because they were given jobs through corruption in this state. SFI and DYFI are protesting across the state against this. Today, when we went to protest in Howrah, the police attacked us. The attack was on DYFI's secretary and many SFI activists, including women, who were targeted by male police officers. The police attacked a peaceful protest, revealing themselves to be the state's hired goons," she said.
Apart from the DYFI, the BJP workers on Thursday protested against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led State Government over the issue.
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.
The top court's verdict came on a petition filed by the West Bengal government that challenged an April 2022 order of the Calcutta High Court, which had cancelled the recruitment of more than 25,000 teachers and other staff for state-run and aided schools.
The top court had reserved its verdict in the matter on February 10. (ANI)