‘Justice delayed is justice denied’ but the unfortunate 10,323 teachers await justice even after seven years

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, October 2, 2026

The adage that ‘Justice delayed is Justice denied’ seems to be coming true in the case of the illegally retrenched 10,323 teachers as the apex court in the country has been giving precedence to cases related to income tax matters and other issues at the bottom of the ‘cause lists’ over the case of the hapless teachers. Even though more than six years have passed since the 10,323 teachers were retrenched in a totally illegal manner by the state government, the helpless teachers have still been fighting an unequal legal battle to secure their jobs .

It was on September 30 that a writ petition pending in the supreme court filed by 78 retrenched teachers had come up for hearing in the division bench of Justice Manoj Misra and Justice Vijay Bishnoi as case No 24. But the Justices preferred to hear an income tax related case listed at No-36 the teachers writ petition was timed out that day. The case has been listed for October 6 but there is no certainty that it will be heard that day also . The advocates Birja Mahapatra, Upendra Singh , Amrit Lal Saha and Aveek Saha , representing the hapless retrenched teachers pointed out that at least two of the lawyers as well as the petitioners had come from a distant place like Tripura at high expense and the matter needed to be heard and disposed of early . At that point the Justices looked sympathetic and gave the date of 6th October .

Apart from this, two other special leave petitions filed by other teachers in other benches have also been clubbed together and are slated to be heard on October 6, if at all. The teachers among petitioners have expressed their disappointment over delay and rising cost in persisting with the cases but still they made no comment and expressed the hope that justice will ultimately prevail. “The left front government had been badly let down by their law department while the BJP government backed out of their promises in our matter , now the court only remains our last hope; the most bizarre thing is that as per the original high court order of May 7 2014 only 209 teachers had lost their jobs but no body is perusing the order and interpreting it correctly; besides no order of the supreme court retrenched all the teachers en masse and that is what we are trying to highlight in our writ petitions in the supreme court” said a petitioner. He added that there was no corruption charge involved in the case and the Calcutta high court protected the jobs of 26 thousand teachers who had been recruited by the Mamata government in a highly corrupt manner, as proved already. This was done by invoking Article 21 of the constitution which should be applicable in our case also , the retrenched teachers added. He also pointed out that 240 illegally retrenched teachers have already died after losing jobs, leaving their families in a starving condition.

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