No coercive action against teachers for May 15 incident, says Calcutta high court
The high court also directed the agitating teachers of state-run schools to shift their protest venue to Central Park in Salt Lake
KOLKATA: The Calcutta high court on Friday directed the police to not take any coercive steps against protesting teachers who lost their jobs in April this year after a Supreme Court verdict.
The high court also directed the agitating teachers of state-run schools to shift their protest venue to Central Park in Salt Lake, located opposite Bikash Bhavan, the state’s education department headquarters, and told the authorities to make the requisite arrangements for them
“In view of the issues relating to protest, the state is directed to treat the agitators with a humane face and to that extent, if it is possible, the concerned administration would see to that a temporary structure is made available to the agitating members so that the scorching heat do not affect the health of the individuals concerned,” justice Tirthankar Ghosh said, directing the municipal corporation to make arrangements for drinking water and bio-toilets.
The directions were passed on a petition by a group of teachers, who came together under the Deserving Teachers Rights Forum, to quash FIRs registered against protesting teachers. Several people were injured on May 15 when a section of the 2016-batch teachers, who lost their jobs after the apex court’s verdict in the bribe-for-job case, clashed with police personnel who tried to remove their road blockade in Bidhannagar.
.“As there have been no further complaints till date after a sporadic incident on May 15, I direct the police authorities to go slow in respect of all the accused persons. The police authorities will not take any coercive steps against any accused till further orders of this court,” the high court said.
The bench also directed the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education not to give any effect to the show-cause notices issued to the teachers after last week’s clash.
On April 3, the top court scrapped the appointments of all 2016-batch school teachers and Group-C and D staff saying there was no way to segregate the tainted from the non-tainted.
The appointments were first cancelled by the Calcutta high court in 2023, and the Supreme Court order came on an appeal filed by the state government.
