The Supreme Court will hear Jan 9 the three separate Special Leave Petitions (SLPs), filed against the Tripura High Court judgment ordering termination of jobs of 10,323 government school teachers.
"The Supreme Court has fixed Jan 9 as the date of hearing of three separate SLPs. The date of hearing was fixed after the registrar of the apex court heard the matter yesterday (Monday)," Tripura government law secretary Datamohan Jamatia told reporters.
The three SLPs were filed against the high court judgment before the Supreme Court by the Tripura government and the teachers affected by the high court order.
A division bench of the Tripura High Court, comprising Chief Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Swapan Chandra Das, passed the order May 7 citing irregularities in recruitment.
The high court also asked the state government to start a fresh recruitment process by December 2014 and frame a new employment policy within two months.
The high court, after hearing the state government and the complainants, passed the order on a batch of 58 petitions filed by those who had failed to secure jobs as government teachers.
The high court allowed the teachers to continue in service till Dec 31.
Tripura's Left Front government recruited 1,100 post-graduate and 4,617 graduate teachers in 2010 and 4,606 under-graduate teachers in December 2013.
Jamatia, said: "Though the Supreme Court did not give any stay order on the high court judgment, but the jobs of 10,323 teachers would continue beyond Dec 31 as the apex court has already taken up the matter."
"If necessary, an interlocutory application would be filed before the Supreme Court in the first week of December to obtain a clear cut order from the apex court on the high court's deadline of Dec 31," the law secretary added.
Tripura Education Minister Tapan Chakraborty said the state government was hopeful that the fate of the 10,323 teachers would be protected after the final judgment of the Supreme Court.
He said the state government would stand by the teachers whose jobs have been put in jeopardy.
The main opposition parties, including the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress, earlier welcomed the high court's verdict and sought fresh recruitment. They also demanded resignation of the chief minister and the education minister.
The ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) had urged the high court to review its judgment on humanitarian ground.
"The court judgment cancelling the jobs of 10,323 school teachers is unprecedented, unfortunate and inhuman. (But) The opposition parties have expressed joy over the decision," CPI-M state secretary Bijan Dhar had told reporters.
