Bhubaneswar: Around 13,000 junior teachers (schematic) in Odisha started an indefinite strike at PMG Square here on Thursday, demanding that the state govt to urgently respond to the high court’s interim stay on their regularisation and clear the way for their long-awaited regular status.The teachers, who have been serving in primary and upper primary schools, said the prolonged uncertainty over their service status was affecting their career progression and depriving them of the benefits attached to regular service. They urged the govt to immediately submit its response before the Orissa high court and resolve the issue.Earlier this year, chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi approved the long-pending demand for regularisation of around 13,000 contractual/schematic junior teachers working in govt and govt-aided schools across the state. The teachers, appointed during the 2023-24 academic year, were to be regularised from their date of joining.The regularisation process, however, ran into a legal hurdle after the Orissa high court granted an interim stay on the govt’s move. The court passed the order while hearing a petition filed by a group of junior contractual teachers who were subsequently appointed as elementary teachers.The petitioners have raised concerns over seniority, arguing that retrospective regularisation of the 2023-24 batch from their initial date of engagement could place them above teachers appointed earlier in the gradation list.Singdha Mohanty, a junior teacher from Jajpur, said the regularisation process was supposed to be completed in two phases. “Document verification of one group was completed in Sept-Oct for regularisation, while the second group was supposed to be covered in Dec,” she said.The petitioners, who belong to the second group, have challenged the school and mass education department’s April 2 notification, under which junior teachers (schematic) engaged during 2023-24 through due recruitment process and continuing as assistant teachers in Level-V(A) of the elementary cadre were to be regularised from the date of their initial engagement.The teachers said the govt should ensure that those who have completed the prescribed recruitment process and continued in service are given regular status without further delay, while also protecting the seniority of teachers from different batches.The HC had granted four weeks to the additional govt advocate to obtain instructions from the govt and posted the matter for further hearing on June 29. The department is yet to file its response, the teachers said. “The uncertainty is affecting our career progression and service benefits. We want the government to take up the matter seriously and place its response before the court,” the agitating teachers said.School and mass education commissioner-cum-secretary N Thirumala Naik could not be contacted for comment. A senior department official said the department was working on the issue. The teachers warned that they would intensify their agitation if the govt failed to act and may boycott non-teaching and administrative duties in schools across the state.