SC to hear 34 cases of Tripura, including decade-old teachers’ termination in special Lok Adalat
New Delhi, June 27 (Agency) The Supreme Court has scheduled to hear at least 34 cases from Tripura in the special Lok Adalat week from July 29 to August 3, including a fresh case pending in the apex court regarding the termination of 10,323 government school teachers following a judgment of the Tripura High Court in 2014. Tripura State Legal Services Authority served notices to the parties involved in the cases to appear before the respective district Legal Services Authority of West Tripura and South Tripura and the High Court Legal Service Authority for the pre-Lok Adalat conciliation process until July 10. The arrangements for distant participation through video conferencing in the pre-Lok Adalat conciliation hearings have been put in place to facilitate the parties in the conciliation process. Scheduling the most sensitive case of the removal of 10,323 school teachers from the service a decade ago in the Lok Adalat has triggered confusion among the aggrieved parties.
After the judgment of termination on the grounds of a faulty process of recruitment adopting unfair means, the victim teachers and the state government moved to the Supreme Court against the decision, but several times the court turned down the pleas but allowed the state government to fill up the vacancies of the terminated teachers following national norms. After several rounds of hearings and arguments in the top courts, the year finally closed the matter, saying there was no scope to review the case, as the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the high court. Thereafter, a fresh petition by a terminated teacher, Pranab Das, was submitted to the Supreme Court, challenging the process of termination by the state government.Admitting the case, a bench of Justice Bela M Trivedi and Justice Pankaj Mithal in the apex court on April 16 issued a notice to the state on a batch of pleas challenging the Tripura High Court’s order setting aside the state’s Employment Policy of 2003 and the appointment of a large number of graduate teachers. However, now this case has also been listed for settlement in Lok Adalat.