Agartala, May 9 (IANS): The Tripura government may appeal to the Supreme Court against the judgment of the Tripura High Court which Wednesday terminated services of 10,323 teachers of government schools, an official said Friday.
A division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Swapan Chandra Das also asked the state government to arrange fresh recruitment process by December 2014.
The court passed the order on a batch of 58 petitions filed by those who had failed to secure the teachers' jobs after hearing the state government and the complainants.
The Tripura government recruited 1,100 post-graduate, 4,617 graduate, and 4,606 under-graduate teachers since 2010.
"Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, Education and Law Minister Tapan Chakraborty have held a series of meetings with the officials and legal experts in the past two days to study the scope of filing a petition in the apex court against the high court judgment," a top law department official told IANS on condition of anonymity.
The main opposition parties, including the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress, welcomed the court's verdict and sought fresh recruitment process. They also demanded resignation of the chief minister.
Chakraborty said the government would stand by the teachers whose jobs have been put at stake.
"We urge upon the teachers to trust the government. We are now studying all aspects of the judgment," Chakraborty told reporters.
Meanwhile, the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has urged the high court to review its judgement on humanitarian ground.
"The court judgment cancelling the jobs of 10,323 school teachers is unprecedented, unfortunate and inhuman. It has snatched the livelihood of 50,000 families. The opposition parties have expressed joy over the decision of the court," CPI-M state secretary Bijan Dhar told reporters.
The recruitment of 4,606 under-graduate teachers five months back led to a state-wide agitation by a section of unemployed youths and various political parties. They accused the Left Front government of failure to provide jobs.
Striking down the teachers' appointments, the high court also directed the Tripura government to frame a new employment policy within two months.