The Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti in Shillong on Saturday cancelled the termination order of a teacher, Bandita Borah, of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Titabor, in Assam’s Jorhat district.

The Samiti on Saturday asked the school to reinstate Borah, whom the school had terminated on December 24, allegedly for her poor performance, days after she had expressed solidarity with students protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 on the school campus.

The Samiti’s deputy commissioner, Shyamaleema Deka, sent a letter to the principal of the school, saying. “You are requested to reinstate Bondita Borah to the post of FCSA (faculty-cum-system administrator) at JNV, Jorhat, with immediate effect under intimation to this office.”

The school has been in news following termination of Borah. She had gone public to say that she had been terminated for her anti-CAA stance but that the immediate trigger for her termination was the filming of a programme by students of the institute in which they had sung and recited patriotic songs and poetry during morning assembly. Following this, a non-Assamese teacher had criticised those protesting against CAA as “illiterate”. This had caused a hue and cry among the students and Borah had taken up the issue with the teacher in support of the students. The teacher had later apologised.

The Titabar units of the All Assam Students’ Union and the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad, had written to the deputy commissioner to reconsider Borah’s termination. The two organisations had given the principal 24 hours to reinstate Borah, failing which they warned of an agitation against the school.

Borah told The Telegraph that she received a mail from the school around 1pm on Saturday with the reinstatement order and a call from the school requesting her to join duty immediately. “I went to the school today and joined duty. I thank everyone who stood by me during the past few days,” she said.

The AJYCP’s Titabor regional committee general secretary Rajib Sarma thanked the Samiti for reinstating Borah and warned it not to reiterate such “anti-Assam” activity in future.

Additional reporting by Devajit Baruah in Jorhat