Termination of 10,323 government school teachers
New Delhi/Agartala: The Supreme Court, admitting a special leave petition (SLP) Monday, stayed Tripura High Court’s order for framing a new employment policy within two months, thereby giving relief to some 10,320-plus sacked government teachers and the state government.
“The Supreme Court today (Monday) admitted the Tripura government’s SLP against the Tripura High Court judgment terminating jobs of 10,323 government school teachers,” Education Minister Tapan Chakraborty told reporters in Agartala.
He said: “A division bench of the apex court comprising Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar and Justice R.K. Agrawal also stayed the high court’s order directing the state government to frame a new employment policy within two months.”
The hearing on the SLP has been posted for Sep 12.
A division bench of the Tripura High Court, comprising Chief Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Swapan Chandra Das, in its judgment May 7 terminated the jobs of 10,323 government school teachers citing discrimination and misdeeds.
The high court also asked the state government to arrange a fresh recruitment process by December 2014 and frame a new employment policy within two months.
Tripura’s Left Front government recruited 1,100 post-graduate and 4,617 graduate teachers in 2010 and 4,606 under-graduate teachers in December 2013.
The high court, after hearing the state government and the complainants, passed the order on a batch of 58 petitions filed by those who had failed to secure jobs as government teachers.
The education minister said the Supreme Court’s order was a great relief for the state government and the newly-recruited teachers.
“We are happy with the apex court’s decision. Opposition political parties after the high court’s judgment have been playing politics over the issue,” Chakraborty said.
He said he was hopeful that the fate of the 10,323 teachers would be protected after the final judgment of the Supreme Court.
He said the state government would stand by the teachers whose jobs have been put in jeopardy.
The main opposition parties, including the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress, had earlier welcomed the high court’s verdict and sought fresh recruitment. They also demanded resignation of the chief minister and the education minister.
Meanwhile, the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) had urged the high court to review its judgment on humanitarian ground.
“The court judgment cancelling the jobs of 10,323 school teachers is unprecedented, unfortunate and inhuman. (But) The opposition parties have expressed joy over the decision,” CPI-M state secretary Bijan Dhar had told reporters.