Suman Debnath And Ors vs State Of Tripura And Ors

Petitioners' main prayer is as follows:

"In the premises aforesaid, it is, therefore, most respectfully prayed that Your Lordship may be graciously pleased to:

(i) Issue Rule NISI calling upon the respondents to show cause as to why a Writ of Mandamus and/or in the nature thereof, directing the respondents no. 1 and 2 to treat the Assistant Teachers at par with the petitioners recruited in the year 2010 (Annexure 7 supra) since the appointment was based on similar Employment Policy dated 30.08.2003 applying the principle of seniority-cum-merit-need;"

Petitioners were recruited as Teachers in the Government schools. Their services are liable to be terminated since the entire selection process was declared invalid by Division Bench of this Court in case of Tanmoy Nath and others vs. State of Tripura and others reported in (2014) 2 TLR 731. Supreme Court after initially staying the judgment of the High Court has also dismissed the appeal of the State Government.

Learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that the Science Teachers whose services also should have been terminated by the Government since their selections were also based on the same employment policy of 30.08.2003, which the High Court in case of Tanmoy Nath (supra) had declared illegal. In this context, the prayer of the petitioners is that such Science Teachers should also be treated at par with the petitioners.

In my opinion, in the present petition, the petitioners have no locus standi to seek termination of those Science Teachers. Essentially, the prayer of the petitioner would amount to this consequence. This is not a public interest petition and the petitioners were no direct connection with the employment of the Science Teachers, cannot seek direction for terminating their services.

This however, would not mean that if there are any teachers whose cases are covered by the decision of this Court in case of Tanmoy Nath (supra), the Government can protect them dehors the scope left open in the said judgment as modified by the Supreme Court in the appeal.

Subject to these observations, petition is dismissed. I.A.

No.01 of 2020 also stands dismissed.