Tripura High Court dismisses one of 10,323 sacked teachers' plea, imposes fine on petitioner

The full bench of Tripura High Court, presided over by Chief Justice AK Singh, Justice T Amarnath Gaur, and Justice Arindam Lodh, dismissed a petition by one of the retrenched 10,323 teachers, once again upholding their dismissal. 

This case has been a subject of contention since 2014.

Advocate General Siddharta Sankar Dey, told reporters that the petitioner contended he was not a party to the petition in which the High Court invalidated the recruitment rules on which the appointments had been based.

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"One of the 10,323 teachers moved the High Court questioning the process of termination. The writ petitioner claimed that his services couldn't have been terminated as he was appointed during the CPIM government. He came and stated that the government could not have terminated his services without giving him notice. The government's plea was that they had not terminated anyone. Instead, the court ruled that all of them were liable to be terminated because the entire selection procedure was flawed. When the new government came into power, they promised to address the issue. They repeatedly approached the Supreme Court, requesting extensions for the terminated teachers since they were unable to fill all the vacant positions left by the 10,323 terminated teachers. The Supreme Court granted them extensions in phases until March 2020," he explained.

Dey further stated, "The Court asserted that the petitioner presented no new arguments. Furthermore, the petitioner failed to provide justification for their continued employment, despite the previous government's recruitment policy being declared unconstitutional in successive judgments by both the High Court and the Supreme Court."

Dey also mentioned that the Court imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000 on the petitioner for the misuse of judicial time.