Patna, July 28 (IANS): About 3,000 school teachers in Bihar, who allegedly used fake degree certificates to get jobs, have resigned till date apprehending legal action.

The Patna High Court on Tuesday refused further general amnesty to those who have failed to resign so far, a government lawyer said, adding that the state education department has informed the court that 3,000 school teachers have resigned so far.

According to education officials, the teachers resigned following the Patna high court directive to the state government early this month to ask the school teachers, who allegedly used fake degree certificates to get the jobs, to resign or face legal action.

The court had made it clear that school teachers, continuing with their jobs with fake degree certificates even after the deadline to resign would be liable to punishment and recovery of the salary paid to them.

Last month, the Patna High Court directed the director of the Bihar vigilance department to probe the recruitment of nearly 40,000 government teachers who allegedly used fake degree certificates to get their jobs.

The court ordered the probe on the petition of Ranjit Pandit, and asked for an investigation report within four weeks.

Pandit's lawyer Dinu Kumar said the court asked the director of state vigilance to complete the verification of degrees and certificates of teachers recruited by the state government from 2006 till date.

"The court's order was important as in view of the next Bihar assembly polls later this year, the state government was not taking action against the teachers, who used fake degrees to get jobs," he said.

Earlier, the state government admitted that it recruited more than 300,000 contract teachers without verifying their educational and professional degrees.

The petition was filed in the high court last year seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the recruitment of 40,000 teachers who allegedly used fake degree certificates to get jobs in government schools.

The petitioner said he has collected documents as evidence through Right to Information queries to prove that thousands of teachers used forged degrees to get jobs.