New twist to the case of retrenched 10,323 teachers , Justice T.Amarnath Gour’s order May 30 referred to division benc

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, June 6, 2023

In a new twist to the case filed by the illegally retrenched graduate teacher Pranab Deb regarding the illegal manner in which his service had been terminated by an ‘omnibus’ order by the state government with effect from April 1 2020, Justice Arindam Lodh of a single bench on May 30 held the en masse termination as having no ambiguity but referred the case to a division bench to be constituted by the chief justice Aparesh Sinha to go into the matter. Justice Lodh also disagreed with the order passed by fellow judge T.Amarnath Gour and ordered the registry to raise the matter with the chief justice .

Sources from the high court said that graduate teacher Pranab Deb had filed his case (WPC-893/2022) on September 30 last year challenging the ‘omnibus’ termination served on 10,323 teachers in 2017 against the government of Tripura. The advocate Amrit Lal Saha , leader of the teachers Santanu Bhattacharjee , represented Pranab Deb while the government side was represented by government advocate Debalaya Bhattacharjee and there were altogether six hearings of the case.

In the course of argument advocate Amrit Lal Saha pointed out to Justice Arindam Lodh that provisions under Article 311 (2) had been grossly violated in the matter of en masse or ‘omnibus’ termination of the 10,323 teachers without any inquiry and without giving an opportunity of hearing to the persons proposed to be terminated. Advocate Amrit Lal Saha cited the order passed by the five member constitution bench in the case of Karunakaran versus government of India in 1992 which had upheld the Article 311 (2) of the constitution and it was included in the central civil service rules by Centre in 1995 and by Tripura state later on.

It was also pointed out that four among the 962 science teachers whose appointments had also come under the order of the then chief justice of Tripura high court Deepak Gupta on May 7 2014 have also been issued show cause notices as part of inquiry after three and half years upon supreme court judgement of March 29 2017 by the then chief justice of Tripura high court’s division bench comprising CJ A.Kureshi and Justice S.G.Chatterjee in case No-WPC 119/2020 on a case filed by Sudip Debnath. Besides, during suspension period upon serving of show-cause notice an incumbent employee is supposed to be given half salary or subsistence allowance which never happened in the case of illegally retrenched 10,323 teachers.

For his party Justice Arindam Lodh sought information as to whether the retrenched teachers had been given any extension in service and at the advocate’s calling leader of teachers Santanu Bhattacharjee appeared and informed the Justice that they indeed had been given extension . At this Justice Lodh observed that he had found no ambiguity in the en masse dismissal order passed against the 10,323 teachers and then Santanu Bhattacharjee said that the matter may please be referred to a division bench as Justice Lodh’s fellow brother judge T.Amarnath Gour had passed a different order . Responding favourably Justice Lodh passed an order referring the matter to a division bench to be constituted by the chief justice and ordered the registry to raise the matter with the chief justice Aparesh Kumar Sinha.

The leader of the agitating teachers Santanu Bhattacharjee said that he and other retrenched teachers are hopeful of justice from the court . “We hope justice will finally prevail and we have reposed our faith in the very positive and compassionate attitude and role of the chief minister Dr Manik Saha ;we are now hoping to get back our jobs” said Santanu.