Photo Courtesy: tripuratimes
Agartala: The High Court of Tripura ruled that seniority for school promotions rests on the date of entry into service. It does not depend on when a teacher earns a postgraduate degree. Chief Justice M S Ramachandra Rao and Justice Biswajit Palit issued the order. They dismissed three writ appeals against a senior teacher at Belonia Vidyapith Higher Secondary School.
The dispute involved the promotion to Assistant Headmaster under the Tripura Grant-in-Aid Rules of 2005, as amended in 2022. Teachers Sanjit Biswas and Mrinal Das challenged Jiban Debnath for the spot. Debnath joined service in 1997. Biswas and Das started in 2008 and 2006. The court affirmed Debnath as the senior-most candidate.
The appellants argued that the date of obtaining a postgraduate degree should dictate seniority. They also claimed Debnath lacked eligibility because he began his career as an Assistant Teacher. The judges rejected these claims. They noted the rules only require candidates to hold the necessary degrees. The bench stated, "We agree with the reasoning of the learned Single Judge that the amended Rule 5 nowhere prescribes that seniority as a Post Graduate Teacher would be counted from the date of acquisition of the Post Graduate Degree/B.Ed Degree and all that it requires is that the candidate must possess both those degrees."
The court ruled that the Recruitment Rules of 2014 protected Debnath. He became a postgraduate teacher through the deeming provision in that policy. Judges also cleared him of alleged irregularities in his Annual Confidential Reports. The school management could not challenge the validity of those records. The court ordered officials to carry out the promotion within four weeks.
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