In a landmark judgment, the Tripura High Court has quashed a decades-old state government policy that enforced a fixed pay structure for newly recruited employees for their initial five years of service. The court ruled the policy, in place since 2001, as unconstitutional.
Court Delivers Verdict on Long-Pending Petitions
A division bench comprising Chief Justice M S Ramachandra Rao and Justice Biswajit Palit delivered the verdict after hearing a series of writ petitions challenging the policy. The contentious rule, first introduced by the Left Front government in 2001 and 2007 for Group C and D posts, mandated that employees recruited through competitive exams would receive only a fixed pay for the first five years before being moved to a regular pay scale.
Advocate Purushottam Roy Barman, representing the petitioners, argued that the policy violated the constitutional rights of the employees. The bench concurred, stating that the practice deprived employees of their rightful remuneration. "The HC has now confirmed that this practice is unconstitutional," Barman stated after the verdict.
Immediate Relief for Employees, Including TET Teachers
The court's order provides significant relief to a wide range of government staff. It explicitly stated that graduate and postgraduate teachers, along with all other government employees, are entitled to be paid according to the regular scale from their very first day of employment. This directly benefits Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) appointees who had moved the court against the policy, which continued even after the BJP-led government assumed power in 2018.
The court also imposed a cost of Rs 2,000 each on the 18 employees who filed the writ petitions. Furthermore, it clarified that employees retain the right to pursue further legal action if the state government fails to comply with the order.
Government Begins Issuing Pending Appointment Letters
In a related development, the Tripura government has initiated the process of issuing appointment letters to candidates whose selections were finalized during the previous Left Front administration but were subsequently cancelled by the incoming BJP government in 2018. This move indicates a shift in administrative action following legal scrutiny.
The court's decision sets a crucial precedent, affirming the principle of equal pay for equal work from the start of service and striking down a long-standing financial practice deemed unfair to thousands of state employees.
