High court notice to Tripura government on teachers' termination

AGARTALA: The Tripura high court has issued a notice to Tripura government and sought a reply within four weeks on the government's decision to terminate 10,323 teachers from service, who are continuing as ad hoc instructors since then.
The court was hearing a petition filed by one Sajal Deb, who is among the 10,323 teachers who were terminated from service in May 2014. The petition contended that the decision to terminate jobs of these teachers, who are continuing as ad hoc instructors in schools now due to lack of teaching faculty members, is arbitrary and reeks of a double-stand.This is because, the petitioner argued, many teachers recruited in the same period under the same education policy did not lose their jobs.
After hearing the petition, a Tripura high court division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Arindam Lodh sought clarifications from the state government on the matter.
However, state government sources said that the court order had been executed by the then Left Front government and the BJP-IPFT government had sought only two years' extension in service of the ad-hoc teachers as there was a huge shortage of instructors in schools.
Deb had also claimed in his petition that the high court, in its judgement to terminate the jobs of the teachers, had not mentioned the exact number or names of teachers whose jobs should be terminated. The judgment hit the employment policy of the government but when the state government issued termination order and subsequently issued ad hoc appointment made only the teachers who had been appointed during a particular period.
Similarly, in 2012, without prescribed qualifications and norms of Right to Education Act, 1996 being followed, science teachers were appointed by the state government following the same policy but the job of those teachers were also secured by the state. Moreover, the state government had helped them acquire BEd and DElEd degrees. Since, the high court void the employment policy of Tripura government, job given to everyone during their period was supposed to be terminated, the petitioner stated.
In another case, a group of science teacher appointed in 2010 had been terminated and absorbed on ad hoc basis till next March but the teachers appointed in 2012 with same qualification and process was kept secure by the state government, which the petitioner said was a clear case of discrimination.