SHILLONG: The Division Bench of the High Court of Meghalaya has fixed July 31 to have a final hearing on the review petition moved by All Meghalaya Primary School Teachers Association and others seeking relief for the non-tainted teachers following the education scam.
Earlier on November 2 last year, the Division Bench had asked the government to scrap the entire appointment of teachers carried out in 2009-2010 after examining the CBI probe report and the subsequent report of the state-appointed High Level Scrutiny Committee, which found large-scale irregularities in the recruitment process when Congress legislator Ampareen Lyngdoh was the education minister.
Following this, some aggrieved teachers had filed a special leave petition before the Supreme Court to modify the order of the High Court so that the non-tainted candidates can continue to serve as teachers.
However, the Apex Court in its order on April 6 this year upheld the order of the Division Bench of the High Court, but allowed the aggrieved teachers to move the High Court if they were not heard earlier.
After hearing the parties, it will be open to the High Court to pass any further order in accordance with law, the Apex Court had said.
When the case came up for hearing on Thursday, the issue of maintainability of the review petition was raised and while hearing the counsel for the petitioners and grounds projected and keeping in view of the order passed by the Apex Court in the special leave petition filed by the petitioners, the counsel for the respondents did not oppose the maintainability of the petition.
Hence, the court wanted to have the final hearing on the matter on July 31.
The petitioners wanted the teachers who are found untainted to continue to serve as regular teachers so that the November 2 order of the High Court will not have any bearing on them.
The November 2 order had specified that the non-tainted teachers can apply for the posts afresh irrespective of their age though the entire recruitment process was cancelled.
The court had also given scope to tainted teachers for making appeals before a committee headed by the chief secretary to prove that they are not blemished with a condition that if the candidates cannot prove, they would not be allowed to apply for any government jobs in future.
