The Tripura High Court has directed the state government to produce all relevant documents, including the 2001 recruitment policy, on the next date of hearing scheduled for August 8, in connection with the long-standing case involving the 10,323 retrenched teachers.
This development follows the state’s repeated failure to submit key documents despite multiple hearings. The matter was taken up again yesterday by a bench led by Justice Sabyasachi Datta Purkayastha. Despite clear directives, the state, represented by Additional Government Advocate D. Sharma, sought additional time to present the “voluminous documents.” The court, visibly displeased, issued a final directive to ensure submission of the 2001 recruitment policy and all related annexures at the next hearing.
The ongoing legal battle stems from three separate petitions filed in the Tripura High Court by retrenched teachers Bidhan Das (PGT), Subhas Singh (UGT), and Santanu Bhattacharjee (GT), through advocates T.K. Naike, Amrit Lal Saha, and Aveek Saha. These cases were filed under the liberty granted by the Supreme Court to challenge the mass retrenchment.
The petitioners argue that the recruitment of the 10,323 teachers during 2010 and early 2014 was carried out under the 2001 recruitment policy. They contend that the government’s claim of a 2003 recruitment policy has no official documentation, thereby asserting that the retrenchments were unconstitutional and violated established service laws.
Disturbingly, it has been reported that 209 of the retrenched teachers have died since the layoffs became effective from April 1, 2020, with 35 of them allegedly committing suicide under duress caused by the job loss.
Meanwhile, a parallel case filed in the Supreme Court by a retrenched teacher, Narayan Sutradhar, with Pranab Deb tagged along, remains active. The affected teachers have indicated that they are closely monitoring the High Court’s decision and are prepared to revive the Supreme Court matter if justice is not served at the state level.