The Supreme Court has upheld the termination of 8,882 ad-hoc teachers in Tripura, who were working in the School Education department.
“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,” a bench comprising Justices UU Lalit and Vineet Saran said.
The bench said that it must be noted that the attempt on the part of the state in offering certain alternate employment is not to degrade the teachers and 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 March 31, 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. In our view, it does not amount to any degradation,” said the bench.
In 2014, the Tripura High Court had terminated the appointment of 10,323 government school teachers citing that the selection was contrary to the provisions of the National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993.
The High Court said that the appointments were arbitrary and illegal and suffered due to nepotism and favouritism.
The Supreme Court in 2017 modified the High Court order and directed the state government to complete a fresh selection process on or before December 31, 2017.
A total of 8882 ad-hoc teachers were terminated on the completion of academic session 2019-20 in accordance with directions issued by the apex court.
Since 2010, a total of 10,323 undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate teachers were appointed in different phases, and this was challenged in the Tripura High Court.Nenow
