CUTTACK: The Higher Education department has asked the Advocate General (AG) to take necessary action to file a writ appeal challenging a High Court (HC) order issued six years ago. For the purpose, a deputy secretary of the department has also enclosed a draft writ appeal in his letter sent to the AG recently.
According to rules, writ appeals are expected to be filed within a stipulated period of 30 days from the date of receiving the certified copy of the order to be challenged. On April 16, 2015, the HC had issued direction to the State government to complete the process of taking over Indravati Plus II College at Jaipatna in Kalahandi district and bring it under GIA fold. The order was issued on a petition filed in 2010 by 24 teaching and non-teaching employees of the college seeking direction to extend the benefit of GIA Order-1994 to them.
The GIA Order-1994 provided full grant for eligible teaching and non-teaching employees of private educational institutions towards their salary and other dues. But the petitioners filed a contempt case in 2019 as their institution was notified for receipt of grant under GIA Order-2004. The government had repealed the GIA Order-1994 and brought in the GIA Order-2004 which provided for partial grant instead of full grant.
The decision to file the writ appeal was taken after the HC in an order in the contempt case expanded the scope of the April 16, 2015 direction. Although it had not indicated implementation of a specific GIA order for the petitioners, the direction issued in the contempt case on February 5, 2021 had made it binding on the government to extend the benefit of GIA Order-1994 to them.
The order was not tenable as the GIA Order-1994 was repealed 17 years ago. The Supreme Court had already in a judgment on September 16, 2019 clarified that the provisions of the repealed GIA Order-1994 cannot be invoked after its repeal, the draft writ appeal contended.