Photo Courtesy: nenow
Agartala: The Tripura High Court has ordered the state government to make its Technical Institutions Fee Regulatory Committee operational within one month. The court slammed the state for leaving the committee on paper for 23 years. This inaction allowed private institutions to set their own fees without oversight.
A division bench, led by Chief Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao and Justice Biswajit Palit, issued the ruling this month. The judges rejected a bid by retired Justice Alok Baran Pal for back pay. Pal served as committee chairman starting June 10, 2010, but the court found he failed to perform any tasks.
The court noted that Justice Pal never invited applications from schools or set any fee structures. The bench ruled that accepting the role without clarifying terms of service was a mistake. “Merely because the said committee apparently was constituted on 10.06.2010, the appellant cannot claim remuneration when he had not turned out any work,” the court stated.
Justice Pal claimed the state provided neither staff nor infrastructure. He sought pay from December 1, 2018, noting he held another office before that date. The government rejected his request in 2023. A single judge initially dismissed his plea on May 16, 2025, calling the position honorary.
The division bench clarified that the committee could not change leadership without a formal government notification. This effectively countered claims that Justice Jayanta Kumar Biswas had taken over the post in 2016. The state must now finalize remuneration, leave policies, and staff requirements to satisfy the Supreme Court ruling in Islamic Academy of Education.
Comments