Kolkata, May 18 (IANS) Police have summoned teachers protesting outside the West Bengal Education Department headquarters for allegedly destroying public property and obstructing state government personnel from performing their duties.

As many as 17 protesting teachers, including some who received head and body injuries in “police action”, have been asked to be physically present at Bidhannagar North Police Station in Kolkata, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate, at 11 a.m. on May 21.

In the notice, a copy of which is available with IANS, these 17 teachers have also been cautioned of arrest under various sections of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, in case they do not turn up at the police station.

Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate has filed a sumo motu case against those protesting teachers, accusing them of destroying public property, obstructing state government personnel from performing their duties, and launching attacks on police.

The summons to these 17 teachers is related to the suo motu case by the police.

On the other hand, an advocate of Calcutta High Court, on Friday, has sought suo motu intervention of the same court in the matter of “unprovoked” and “ruthless” baton charge by police on the protesting teachers, whose demand was that the state government and the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) should publish list segregating the “untainted” candidates from the “tainted” one who got jobs paying money.

The Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, has already announced that the BJP legislative team will raise the issue during the Monsoon Session, starting June 9.

On April 3 this year, the Supreme Court upheld a previous order by the Calcutta High Court’s division bench of Justice Debangshu Basak and Justice Shabbar Rashidi cancelling 25,753 school jobs in West Bengal.

The Apex Court also accepted the observation of the Calcutta High Court that the entire panel of 25,753 candidates had to be cancelled because of the failure of the state government and the commission to segregate the “untainted” candidates from the “tainted” ones.

The state government and WBSSC had already filed review petitions in the Apex Court on this issue.

–IANS

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