After being led away by police from the protest site, candidates for teaching jobs filed a petition with the Calcutta High Court challenging a single bench decision that imposed Section 144 of the CrPC there. In the petition they turned in on Friday, the candidates defended their right to organize a nonviolent protest. The appeal against the single bench order will be heard by a division bench on October 28, according to Firdaus Shamim, counsel for the petitioners, who made the announcement on Saturday.
Earlier this week, hundreds of applicants staged a sit-in outside the West Bengal Board of Primary Education office at Karunamoyee in Salt Lake, close by. They claimed that despite passing the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) back in 2014, they had been denied employment in state-sponsored and -aided schools. Some people had even turned to go on a hunger strike to press their case. Following a Calcutta High Court ruling implementing section 144 of the CrPC at the scene of agitation, they were taken from the protest location by the police.
