HC case of 10,323 teachers takes interesting turn , government narrowly escapes cost for failure to submit documents

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, August 9, 2025

The long-pending case filed by the three categories of 10,323 teachers took an interesting turn today with the state government side narrowly escaping cost to be imposed by high court’s single bench headed by Justice Sabyasachi Datta Purkayastha for failure to submit documents sought for by the high court. The three hour-long hearing of the case had commenced around 2-30 PM with the government advocate Mangal Debbarma rising to seek time in the absence of advocate general S.M. Chakraborty and his assistants and advocates Kohinoor Bhattacharjee and Dipankar Sharma . Justice Sabyasachi Datta Purkayastha agreed to give time on the condition that a cost would be imposed for failure to submit a copy of the recruitment rules of 2001 and ‘Annexure-A’ of the termination order of the retrenched 10,323 teachers. But later Mangal Debbarma saved the government from paying the cost by stating that the documents sought for had been submitted.

At the beginning of the actual arguments government advocate Mangal Debbarma questioned the continuance of the case on the ground that the whole issue had been settled by the supreme court order on the petition filed by Tanmay Nath challenging the appointments of 10,323 teachers. But Justice Datta-Purkayastha grilled him on the ground that the appointments, as pleaded by the petitioners, had been made on the basis of the recruitment rules of 2001 and not 2003 that had been annulled by then chief justice Deepak Kumar Gupta by his first order on May 7 2014.

It was then the turn of the advocates for the petitioners Amrit Lal Saha , Aveek Saha and Tarini Kamakshya Naike to present their arguments . They pleaded that in the matter of passing the retrenchment order en masse the state government had violated the provisions of Article 311 of the constitution . Besides citing the provisions of the Article advocate Amrit Lal Saha and Aveek Saha also cited the constituent assembly debates on the Article and specially the speech delivered by Dr B.R.Ambedkar, chairman of constitution’s drafting committee, underlining the spirit behind the article. Apart from this, various other points against the en masse retrenchment order including two judgments of the Tripura high court in 1998 and 1999 upholding the sacrosanct nature of Article 311 at the time of retrenchment or dismissal were also cited by advocate Amrit Lal Saha, Aveek Saha and T.K.Naike. The government side did not have much to say on the points raised by the advocates of the petitioners.

Having heard the entire arguments Justice Sabyasachi Datta Purkayastha posted the case for next hearing on August 18, subject to confirmation through ‘cause list’, with an order enabling the advocates of the petitioners to peruse the documents submitted by the respondents-that is, the government side-before the next hearing of the crucial case. Speaking on the issue advocate Amrit Lal Saha said that he will prepare arguments with strong points relevant to the case for the next hearing as all the points would not have been relevant today as a careful reading of the documents furnished by the government is necessary before the next hearing. He expressed satisfaction over today’s hearing .

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