By Rishi Patodia-
The Supreme Court on Wednesday affirmed the termination of the teachers who were recruited in the State of Tripura through a faulty recruitment process (Ajoy Debbarma and others v. State of Tripura and ors).
The Bench of Justices UU Lalit and Vineet Saran decided to uphold the termination of these teachers on the ground that their appointment was found to be illegal and invalid. As such no other advantage can be given to these candidates, the Court held.
The genesis of the case lies in the challenge that was mounted against the appointment of 10,323 teachers made in the State of Tripura in the years 2002, 2006, and 2009.
The challenge was accepted by the High Court in 2014 when it held that the selection of these teachers itself was contrary to the provisions of the National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993.
The Supreme Court noted that the Tripura High Court accepted the challenge since “it was found that the selection was irrational and illogical and that it suffered from nepotism and favouritism.”
Following a challenge against this order of the High Court, the Supreme Court modified the order, although refused to allow the appeals overall.
In March 2017, the Supreme Court directed the State of Tripura to conduct fresh appointments by the end of December 2017 and said that the teachers already appointed may continue in the meantime.
The candidates who had participated in the previous appointment processes, whether selected or not, could also participate in the fresh recruitment process, the top Court had then clarified.
After the directions of the Supreme Court were complied with, 8,882 ad-hoc teachers who were working in the School Education Department by the end of academic session 2019-2020 came to be terminated. The Court recorded in its judgment,
This termination was challenged before the Tripura High Court. The petitions were dismissed by the High Court which did so on the ground that the pleas were in effect a process seeking the review of the Court’s previous order, which is impermissible in law.
Now, the Supreme Court has also dismissed the appeals and upheld the termination of these ad-hoc teachers while observing,
“In our view, considering the fact that the very selection and appointments were found to be illegal and invalid, no other advantage can be conferred upon the concerned candidates.”
Supreme Court
The Court also noted that the State is obliged to conduct a fresh process for appointment. In this fresh process, the affected candidates will be allowed to participate with an age relaxation. Moreover, the Tripura government assured that alternate employment would be given to the terminated teachers. In this regard, the Court has said,
“It must be noted that the attempt on part of the State in offering certain alternate employment is not to degrade the teachers but some solace is being offered even in cases where the candidates do not succeed in the selections to the posts of teachers. The candidates, if they are otherwise competent and eligible, will certainly have every opportunity till 31.03.2023 to get selected for the posts of teachers in the State and by way of additional benefit those who are unsuccessful in such attempts may retain the alternate employment.”
With this, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeals and affirmed the decision of the High Court.