Leader of the Opposition in the Tripura Assembly, Jitendra Chaudhury, on Saturday appealed to the state government to reconsider the termination of 10,323 teachers in light of the recent Calcutta High Court verdict that granted relief to a large number of teachers in West Bengal. The CPI(M) leader urged Chief Minister Manik Saha, who also holds the education portfolio, to intervene on humanitarian grounds. The appeal comes after the Calcutta High Court’s division bench overturned the dismissal of nearly 36,000 teachers in West Bengal, citing humanitarian considerations. The development has triggered fresh debate in Tripura over the long-pending issue of the terminated teachers who lost their jobs more than a decade ago.
Background of the Tripura Teachers’ Termination Case
The services of 10,323 teachers in Tripura were terminated in the year 2014 following a series of writ petitions that challenged the recruitment rules under which they had been appointed. The High Court of Tripura found faults in the Recruitment Rules adopted during the Left Front government in nineteen eighty. Subsequently, in the year two thousand seventeen, a division bench of the Supreme Court upheld the High Court’s verdict, sealing the fate of thousands of teachers who had already spent several years in service. Since then, the affected teachers have repeatedly demanded reconsideration and relief, but the verdict has remained unchanged. Jitendra Chaudhury pointed out that while several hundred employees appointed under the same recruitment rules are still working in different government departments, the teachers alone had to face mass termination, leading to serious social and economic consequences.
Comparison With West Bengal Teachers’ Case
While addressing the issue, Chaudhudhury referred to the recent Calcutta High Court verdict, which overturned a single bench order that had dismissed around 36,000 teachers in West Bengal. He stated that the division bench granted relief on humanitarian grounds, without entering into the debate of eligibility and ineligibility. According to him, the West Bengal case involved allegations that several candidates had not even appeared for the recruitment examinations. Despite those allegations, the court considered the long years of service rendered by the teachers and offered them protection. In contrast, he argued that the Tripura teachers’ case was fundamentally different, as their termination was based on technical defects in recruitment rules rather than allegations of fraud in individual appointments.
Appeal to Chief Minister Manik Saha
Chaudhury urged Chief Minister Manik Saha to use his position as the education minister to initiate efforts for reconsideration at an appropriate level. He stressed that the humanitarian angle should not be ignored, as many terminated teachers have reportedly died over the years, while several others continue to face severe financial and psychological hardship. He stated that the state government should examine whether administrative or legal options still exist to provide some form of relief to the affected families. According to him, the Calcutta High Court verdict has set a precedent that could be considered while reviewing the Tripura case.
Long-Standing Economic and Social Impact
The termination of more than ten thousand teachers in a single decision had a profound impact on the education sector and the affected households. Many of the terminated teachers were sole breadwinners in their families. The sudden loss of employment pushed several families into long-term financial instability. Education activists in the state have often pointed out that the mass termination also created serious staffing gaps in government schools, particularly in rural and remote regions. Over the years, the state had to rely on fresh contractual recruitments to address classroom shortages.
Political and Legal Sensitivity of the Issue
The issue of the 10,323 terminated teachers remains one of the most sensitive political matters in Tripura’s recent history. While the Supreme Court’s verdict in two thousand seventeen gave legal finality to the case, repeated appeals have been made on moral and humanitarian grounds. Chaudhury emphasized that the growing discussion around the Calcutta High Court’s decision in public forums has renewed hope among the affected teachers and their families. He maintained that the Tripura government should not remain indifferent when a similar humanitarian approach has been adopted by another constitutional court.
What Lies Ahead
As of now, the Tripura government has not issued any official response to the latest appeal made by the Leader of the Opposition. Any move to revisit the case will require careful legal examination, given the Supreme Court’s earlier ruling. However, the renewed political push following the West Bengal verdict is expected to keep the issue in focus in the coming days. For thousands of former teachers and their families, the appeal represents yet another attempt to seek long-awaited relief after more than a decade of uncertainty. Whether the government will pursue the matter at the judicial or policy level remains to be seen, but the humanitarian dimension of the case has once again returned to the center of public discourse in Tripura.
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