CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has directed the state authorities to reappoint a Hindi teacher who was rendered jobless after the reinstatement of a previously terminated teacher.
The single judge bench of Justice Dixit Krishna Shripad passed the order while considering a petition filed by Binodini Nayak, a teacher with over two decades of “spotless service.”
Nayak was appointed to the post of Hindi teacher in Udayanarayan Vidyapith (Dhobasila) in Balasore district on January 5, 2005, after Ramesh Chandra Parida was terminated from service due to unauthorised absence in February 27, 2004. Though her appointment was formally approved in April 2012 with retrospective effect from April 1, 2008, her position became uncertain after Parida won a legal battle for reinstatement after 20 years.
Parida’s termination, upheld initially by the high court, was later set aside by the Supreme Court on April 2, 2024, with a direction for his reinstatement. This led to Nayak losing her position despite her long-standing and unblemished service record. The petitioner sought accommodation in any of the vacant positions in aided schools.
However, her request was turned down by the joint director of Secondary Education on September 13, 2024, citing the pendency of a review petition filed by the school management in the Supreme Court. Nayak sought high court’s intervention, while advocate Jitendra Kumar Lenka argued on her behalf.
Justice Shripad took strong exception to joint director’s reasoning, pointing out that the said review petition had already been dismissed on January 19, 2025. In a pointed critique of bureaucratic attitudes, he urged statutory authorities to shed the “Macaulay mindset and colonial hangover” in dealing with citizens’ grievances. He quashed the impugned order of the joint director and directed for her appointment under the block grant scheme.