The Punjab and Haryana high court has now put the ball in Haryana government's lap for coming out with a solution to adjust 3,206 junior basic trained (JBT) teachers, who have been serving for more than 13 years after their selection during chief minister Om Parkash Chautala's regime in 2000.
The division bench comprising justices Jasbir Singh and Harinder Singh Sidhu on Wednesday, neither put stay on its single-judge order of January 8, nor issued notice of motion to the state government. Finding the selection of 3,206 JBT teachers by the Haryana government in 2000 to be "vitiated, though not fully", the single judge had ordered preparation of a fresh merit list within four weeks, to terminate the undeserving serving teachers.
This is the same case in which the Delhi special central bureau of investigation (CBI) court in January last year had convicted and sentenced Om Prakash Chautala and his son Ajay Chautala for ten years.
The court, taking a humanitarian approach during the arguments, said throwing out such a large number of JBT teachers from their jobs after 13 years would affect their families. Hence, the state government should come up with a formula before February 4 so that these teachers could get relief, it said.
Arguing for some of the petitioners who had challenged the single-judge order before the division bench, senior advocate Puneet Bali submitted that the petitioner teachers were serving for the last 13 years, and till date none of the courts had held them guilty of any misconduct, so they should not be punished for the "crime they had not committed".
{{/usCountry}}Arguing for some of the petitioners who had challenged the single-judge order before the division bench, senior advocate Puneet Bali submitted that the petitioner teachers were serving for the last 13 years, and till date none of the courts had held them guilty of any misconduct, so they should not be punished for the "crime they had not committed".
{{/usCountry}}The court was also informed that it was "clear-cut" law that the judgment of a criminal court cannot have any bearing on civil writ petitions, so the judgment of the Delhi CBI court should not have been taken into consideration by the single judge while deciding their civil writ petitions.