SACKED BENGAL TEACHERS ANNOUNCE NOVEMBER 30 ASSEMBLY MARCH, DEMAND FULFILMENT OF SUVENDU'S JOB ASSURANCE

November 3, 2026

KOLKATA, NOVEMBER 3: A group of schoolteachers whose appointments were cancelled following the Supreme Court's 2025 verdict has announced plans to march to the West Bengal Assembly on November 30, demanding that Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari fulfil his earlier assurance to protect the jobs of deserving candidates.

Suman Biswas, a leader of the Deserving Teachers' and Non-Teaching Staff Platform, said Adhikari had promised on September 4 last year, when he was the Leader of the Opposition, that he would approach the Supreme Court with a list of deserving candidates once the BJP formed the government in Bengal. The protesters said the proposed march was intended to remind the Chief Minister of that commitment.

The teachers have also raised objections to the state government's decision to revise OBC reservation provisions during an ongoing recruitment process. They alleged that replacing the earlier arrangement of 10 per cent reservation for OBC-A and 7 per cent for OBC-B with a revised 7 per cent quota would adversely affect Muslim candidates who had secured appointments under the previous system.

A School Service Commission official said the government had obtained a legal opinion before deciding to implement the revised reservation provisions in the ongoing recruitment process.

The protesting teachers are among 15,403 terminated but untainted candidates who appeared for fresh selection examinations in September in an attempt to retain their employment. Their earlier appointments were cancelled by the Supreme Court in April 2025 after it found the recruitment process to be compromised.

Rupa Karmakar, whose name appears on the panel of 12,500 candidates for Plus-II-level posts, argued that the revised reservation rules could adversely affect in-service candidates despite the Supreme Court's earlier observations concerning the protection of untainted candidates.

The November 30 demonstration is expected to bring renewed attention to the unresolved employment concerns of dismissed teachers and the controversy surrounding changes to reservation rules during the recruitment process.