Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi wrote to President Droupadi Murmu Tuesday and sought her intervention to help reinstate teachers “selected through fair means” in the West Bengal government’s 2016 appointments, which were scrapped by the Calcutta High Court in an order upheld by the Supreme Court.
In his letter, Gandhi said, “Madam, you have served as a teacher yourself. I am sure you understand the enormous human cost of this injustice – to the teachers, their families and their students. I request you to kindly consider their request favourably and urge the government to intervene in the matter to ensure that candidates selected through fair means are allowed to continue.”
Calling the entire selection process “tainted beyond resolution”, the Supreme Court on April 3 upheld the Calcutta High Court order invalidating the West Bengal government’s 2016 appointment of more than 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staff.
“Since the verdict, the teachers as well as staff who stand to be terminated have almost given up hope of any redressal,” said the Congress MP.
I have written to the Honourable President of India, Smt. Droupadi Murmu ji, seeking her kind intervention in the matter of thousands of qualified school teachers in West Bengal who have lost their jobs following the judiciary’s cancellation of the teacher recruitment process.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 8, 2025
“Both tainted and untainted teachers have lost their jobs. Any crime committed during recruitment should be condemned, and the perpetrators must be brought to justice. However, treating teachers selected through fair means on par with tainted teachers is a serious injustice,” said Gandhi.
He said that most “untainted” teachers have served for nearly a decade and their termination “will force lakhs of students into classrooms without adequate teachers”. “Their arbitrary termination will destroy their morale and motivation to serve, and deprive their families of what is often the sole source of income,” the letter stated.
Along with the letter, Gandhi attached a copy of a representation submitted to him by the Shikshak Shikshika Adhikar Mancha (IX-X), a platform for the affected teachers. He recently met a delegation of the teachers’ body.