Hundreds of teachers, rendered jobless by a Supreme Court order canceling 25,753 appointments in West Bengal’s government-aided schools due to recruitment irregularities, continued their protest outside Bikash Bhavan, the state education headquarters in Salt Lake, on Friday.

The demonstration, led by the Deserving Teachers’ Rights Forum, followed violent clashes with police on Thursday that injured around 100 protesters, with 60-70 requiring hospitalization, said forum spokesperson Chinmoy Mondal.

The teachers, who passed the 2016 School Service Commission (SSC) exams, demand permanent reinstatement without fresh recruitment tests. “We had no intention to block passage… but the police suddenly started beating us mercilessly,” Mondal told PTI, alleging a deliberate police ploy after protesters allowed some Bikash Bhavan employees to leave. Deputy Commissioner Anish Sarkar said the baton-charge followed the protesters’ refusal to clear the area, trapping staff inside.

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On Friday, over 1,000 protesters, including civil rights activists, gathered, raising slogans against the Mamata Banerjee-led government. The Supreme Court’s April 3 ruling, upheld on April 22, deemed the SSC process “vitiated and tainted” but allowed 15,000 “untainted” teachers to continue until December 31, 2025, while flagging 1,300 as tainted. Protesters, claiming their names are cleared, seek job security and criticize the West Bengal SSC’s review petition for ignoring their lawyers’ inputs.

With heavy police deployment preventing gate breaches, Mondal announced plans for a larger evening rally to chart the protest’s future. The unrest, reflecting anger over the SSC scam, underscores tensions as teachers fight for their livelihoods amid legal and administrative uncertainty.

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