Tripura CM: Judicial panel to inquire into recruitment of teachers

Agartala: Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Monday announced that a judicial commission would be formed to inquire and fix responsibility on those who gave jobs to the 10,323 teachers, now facing termination on March 31 this year.

Speaking at a special reference period notice, Deb said that a judicial commission headed by a retired judge would be constituted that would look after the total process and the loopholes in the recruitment.

During reference period on the floor of the assembly on Monday, BJP MLA and chief whip Kalyani Roy raised an issue on “appointment in non-teaching posts, state moving to supreme court” published in a vernacular daily recently.

Raising another point of clarification, BJP MLA Sudip Roy Barman said that the decision of the state government does not have the locus standi to file an interlocutory application.

“The Supreme Court will always think in a lawful way as the decision of the state government to appoint the 8,882 teachers in new vacant posts will be a serious violation of Article-16,” Roy Barman said.

He also said that the state government can file a petition in the Supreme Court with a special notice that the state would follow the verdict of the Supreme Court but to the extent the jobs of 10,323 teachers for the last time till December 31.

Senior minister Narendra Chandra Debbarma, while raising a point of clarification, said that the termination-facing teachers have been working for many years and the livelihood of those families would come at risk.

“Giving importance to the live of these teachers the government can declare the post of 8,882 teachers as a supernumerary post for accommodating them,” Debbarma said.

Replying to point of clarification raised by the members in the assembly, education minister Ratan Lal Nath said that the standing council is trying to place the application in the Supreme Court.

“The state government through the help of the legal team has approached the apex court and it is expected that the case would be taken either as an interlocutory application or compiling with the existing case. It is expected that the court will give some direction before March 31,” Nath added.

The 10,323 teachers were recruited in different phases till 2010 in various posts of graduate teachers, postgraduate teachers and undergraduate teachers. Later, a petition was filed challenging the recruitment of the teachers following which the court terminated the jobs of all 10,323 teachers terming the process as ‘unconstitutional’.

The then state government had filed a PIL challenging the verdict of the high court, but the supreme court upheld the high court’s verdict in March 2017.