Agartala:Uncertainty looms large over the future of 10,323 teachers working in different government schools of Tripura, whose labs were cancelled by the High Court with effect from December 31 because of faulty appointment process based on unconstitutional employment policy, on May 7.
Terming the job as illegal, a division bench of High Court of Tripura headed by Chief Justice Deepak Gupta directed the state government to cancel the jobs of the teachers after December and by that time to frame an employment policy within two months and appoint new teachers.
However, the state government has filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court, challenging the High Court’s order in June and the apex court issued a stay on the decision of the High Court regard to formulation of employment policy till hearing of the case.
The petition was scheduled yesterday before the Registry Court of the apex court to examine the status of notice issued by the court to all the respondents. The petitioners sought time for submitting response and Registrar General has granted time.
The case was listed for hearing in the Supreme Court on January 9 next year. Advocate for job deprived youths Arun Chandra Bhowmik stated that the special leave petition did not give any respite to the state government. The court issued a stay on framing out new employment policies, but was silent over the cancellation of job of 10,323 teachers as decided by the High Court.
“Since the apex court did not issue stay on cancelation of the teachers’ job, it is confirmed that after December 31, the state government cannot obtain the service of the teachers and if it does, will be a contempt of the High Court order,” Mr Bhowmik said.
He however, pointed out that the High Court made it clear that the process of appointment was illegal and unconstitutional, the state government could accept the service of those employees beyond the date specified by the court, he questioned.
The High Court had also issued a 19 -point guideline for formulation of employment policy of the state within next two months and directed it to fill up all 10,323 posts for teachers by December 31 though written test with Multiple Choice Questions under supervision of an independent body.
The High Court nullified the existing employment policy of the state government, pursued by the state since 1980 where, 30 per cent of jobs are given on the basis of need and 70 per cent on the basis of merit without any written test.
The Court termed the policy as ‘unconstitutional and illegal’ and observed that each of the job aspirant had a definite need but it was not clear in the government’s existing policy.(UNI)