SC upholds Tripura High Court’s sacking of over 10,000 teachers

Agartala/New Delhi, March 29 (IANS) In a major setback to the Tripura government, the Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the Tripura High Court order terminating the jobs of over 10,000 teachers but allowed them to continue in their jobs till December 31, the state's Law Secretary said.

The apex court asked the Tripura government to initiate the fresh recruitment process and allowed the terminated teachers to participate in the selection process.

"A Supreme Court division bench of Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit upheld the Tripura High Court's May 7, 2014, order terminating the jobs of 10,323 government teachers. However, the Supreme Court allowed them to continue in service till December 31," Tripura Law Secretary D.M. Jamatia told IANS over phone from New Delhi.

"The Supreme Court also asked the Tripura government to initiate a fresh recruitment process by May 31 and complete it by December 31 in compliance with the obligatory qualifications as mandated by the NCERT (National Council for Educational Research and Training)."

"The state government may consult with the union MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development) about the procedure of the recruitment process and procedure," he said.

The Supreme Court order came on three special leave petitions filed before it separately by the Tripura government, beneficiary teachers and terminated teachers.

Tripura Law and Education Minister Tapan Chakraborty said in Agartala that the state government would take its next course of action after receiving the certified copy of the Supreme Court judgment.

"The government would stand behind the government teachers," he told reporters.

A division bench of the Tripura High Court, comprising then Chief Justice Deepak Kumar Gupta (now elevated to the apex court) and then Justice Swapan Chandra Das (since retired) had passed the order and asked the state government to frame a new employment policy within two months.

Tripura's Left Front government recruited 1,100 post-graduate and 4,617 graduate teachers in 2010 and 4,606 under-graduate teachers in December 2013.

The main opposition parties, including the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress, had welcomed the high court's verdict and sought fresh recruitments.