AGARTALA, May 7 (TIWN): In a historical judgement on Wednesday, a division bench of High Court of Tripura comprises with Chief Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice S C Das has cancelled the job of 10,323 teachers in different government schools. Under the employment policy, the government had appointed 10,323 teachers- 1100 PGTs, 4617 GTs and 4606 UGTs from 2010 to 2013.

Announcing the judgement of 58 different cases in similar nature, the Court directed the state government to start a fresh process of appointment of teachers under independent commission with fair selection criteria.

The court also issued a detail guideline for recruitment of teachers in the government school.  The cancelled job included 4617 post graduate teachers, 1100 graduate teachers and 4606 under graduate teachers appointed in three different phases since 2010.

The deprived job aspirants had filed as many as 79 petitions with thousands of signatories before the court alleging nepotism in the appointment of teachers and corruption in the selection process.One of the counsels of the petitioners Arijit Bhowmik told media that the left front government had adopted an unfair means in the recruitment of teachers despite oppositions from several corners.

He said the court has allowed the government to continue classes with the existing teachers till December 31, 2014 and by that time the state government is asked to start process of fresh appointment of teacher under an independent body with written test by following the guidelines.  

"Depriving thousands of eligible and meritorious aspirants, the government appointed under qualified and unqualified party cadres over the years but High Court has given them justice and put to an end to such corruption,” he stated.

High Court observed that state government’s argument of need and merit based employment for the teachers, the court maintained that the revised employment policy appeared to be beyond the constitutional limits and commented: “The way the government had selected candidates was totally unconstitutional”. 

However, the officials in state education department stated that they will be challenging the judgement in the Supreme Court considering the future of thousands of families.Meanwhile, School Education Minister Tapan Chakraborty refused to make any comment on the judgement and stated after study the Court order government will decide the next course of action.   

The petitioners had accused the state government of violating Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 in recruitment of Under Graduate Teachers (UGT) in 7000 odd schools early this year.The court also questioned why would all those jobs not cancelled for non-compliance of RTE, whether the state does have right to flout the qualification criteria set by National Council of Teachers’ Training (NETC) for appointment of teachers and why the state government selected untrained aspirants for the job.

According to HC ordered a public notice was issued through newspaper and media to all 4606 UGT who had got appointed three months ago seeking their reply why their job should not be cancelled.Apart from Basic Training holders, 32 others had also filed separate writs subsequently, alleging violation of RTE Act and appointing unqualified youths as teachers in the name of so called employment policy where 30 percent job given on the basis of need and 70 percent on the basis of merit without any written test.

Tripura had witnessed large scale violence and uproar soon after issuing job offers. The angry aspirants who were deprived of getting job set more than 200 CPI-M party offices on fire and beaten up a few dozens of party leaders had been physically assaulted alleging nepotism and corruption in selection.

However, state government countered the view that RTE Act was implemented in 2010 but the state government appointed UGT based on the advertisements and applications issued for the purpose in 1998, 2003, 2006 and 2009; so the state government’s criteria for selection of UGT could not be ruled out.

Meanwhile, in the writ petition job deprived youths have challenged the recruitment policy of the government adopted in 1970 and stated though the process of recruitment was started before RTE Act, yet the recruitment was made in 2014; hence RTE Act has to be in compliance.

It has also alleged as per RTE senior secondary with at least 50 percent marks and diploma in elementary education was pre-requisite for UGT and final selection has to be made after conduction Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) but the state government flouted in recruitment of about 10,000 teachers including 4606 UGT, had been recruited over the past four years.

Accordingly, the Court amalgamated all the cases pending in the High Court since 2010 related to the appointment of teachers in different categories and completed the hearing last month.Meantime, a week ago after completion of hearing and argument High Court found a serious discrepancy in the process of providing job to Post Graduate, Graduate and Under Graduate teachers in the state over past four years.

It is found that the state government had not given the merit list of the selected candidates for teachers’ appointment despite direction. The court directed the state government to submit all the merit list of the teachers appointed with file notes in the state government schools.

On the other hand, entire opposition welcomed the decision of the High Court and hoped that the judgement will ensure quality education in the government run schools.