The Supreme Court has sought a detailed response from the Tripura government within four weeks to the petitions challenging the termination orders issued to hundreds of teachers in the state.
A two-judge bench of the apex court, led by Justice Bela M Trivedi and Justice Pankaj Mithal has issued notice to the state of Tripura on a batch of pleas challenging the Tripura High Court’s full bench order upholding the setting aside of the state’s Employment Policy of 2003 and appointment of thousands of graduate teachers.
The apex court would now hear the pleas after four weeks, when the Tripura government would file its reply in the issue, as it had not fixed any date for hearing.
Pinning hopes on the top court, a group of 700 under-graduate teachers from Tripura approached the Supreme Court challenging the termination orders issued against them in 2017 and 2020 by the state, which they termed "unlawful and unconstitutional."
The petition has been drawn by advocates Amrit Lal Saha, Tarini Kamakhya Nayak, Aaditya Mishra and filed through AOR Biraja Kanta Mahapatra before the apex court.
Talking to The New Indian Express, Nayak said that "these graduate teachers from Tripura have to knock the doors of the apex court after the State High Court's two-judge bench in 2014 dismissed their pleas. They are trying to get a ray of hope from the top court for their livelihood and family. There is no better alternative in front of them. They need a SC direction to restore them in their jobs."
The HC had in its verdict declared the Employment Policy, 2003 issued by the state government, “bad in law” and set aside the appointment of more than 10,000 teachers allegedly made thereunder, pursuant to which the petitioners were also terminated, Nayak said.
The petitioners have questioned the applicability of the said policy and pleaded to the SC that they were appointed in strict adherence of the recruitment rules for the posts. "There is no illegality perpetrated by the petitioners," Nayak said.
"It is shocking that the HC's judgment has been delivered behind their back," Nayak said, and sought appropriate directions for restoring their appointment as soon as possible.
The petitioners have also alleged that there was a massive scam being perpetrated by the state government wherein the employment and salary codes of all such terminated teachers have still been kept “active" and therefore, the monthly remuneration of such teachers is being debited to the state exchequer and misappropriated by corrupt officials.
The petitioners also said that the fraud angle is now being investigated by the Principal Accountant General (Additional) Tripura.
"There is a grim situation among the family members of these teachers, battling daily expenses and other difficulties. More than 160 of the teachers are now dead due to lack of facilities for basic sustenance with many of them even resorting to suicide," the plea said.