Government school teachers of West Bengal took a breath of fresh air after Calcutta High Court ordered an interim stay on state’s education department seeking refund of increased salary from teachers recruited 15 years ago, till the case is not disposed of. This order came after school teachers challenged West Bengal Education Department’s directive of refunding the hiked salary amount at the Calcutta High Court.
According to West Bengal’s Education Department’s circular, the teachers recruited between 2004-2006 are required to refund their increased salary. The reason cited for this is that when the notification for recruitment of government teachers was released between 2004 and 2006, it was made clear that the teachers are required to take a training degree within five years of getting the job and submit their certificates to the education department.
Since teachers did not submit their training degree certificates as per the notification, they required to refund the increased salary, else the amount would get deducted from their salaries, came the directive from the education department. Most of these teachers teach students of ninth to twelfth grades.
Teachers are citing financial constraints and have brought the matter to Calcutta High Court mentioning that if they are asked to refund their hiked salary of last so many years, they would be left with hardly any money to survive upon.