SC scraps Allahabad high court order staying education tribunals

The Uttar Pradesh Education Service Tribunal Bill, 2021 proposes to constitute two benches of the tribunal in Lucknow and Allahabad

The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside an order of the Allahabad high court restraining the state government from constituting tribunals under a proposed law, the Uttar Pradesh Education Service Tribunal Bill, 2021, which proposes to constitute two benches of the tribunal in Lucknow and Allahabad.

(Representative Photo)

Setting aside the high court order of March 3, 2021, a bench of justices B R Gavai and Sanjay Karol said, “We find that the direction (ii) issued by the (Allahabad) high court, in effect requiring the state to establish tribunal after taking leave of the Court, could not have been passed.”

“In our view, the high court order encroached upon the area reserved for legislature and executive,” the bench added, holding the high court to be at fault for encroaching upon the legislative turf.

The bill proposed the headquarters of the tribunal to be at Lucknow with a bench at Prayagraj (Allahabad). It proposed the establishment of a tribunal for expeditious disposal of service cases relating to teaching and non-teaching staff of the educational institutions receiving aid under the Uttar Pradesh State Universities Act, 1973.

This became a bone of contention among lawyers who demanded the tribunal’s seat to be at Prayagraj. The Allahabad high court had ordered that its permission is needed before establishing the Uttar Pradesh Education Services Tribunal.

The high court order came in a suo moto proceeding where it took note of the lawyers’ protests opposing the implementation of the UP Education Services Tribunal Bill, 2021.

A suo-moto case was registered by the high court following the conflict between the Allahabad high court Bar Association and Awadh Bar Association, Lucknow, concerning the location of the tribunal’s principal seat.

Additional advocate general Sharan Thakur, appearing for the state along with advocate Sakshi Kakkar, told the Supreme Court that the Allahabad high court passed the order in violation of basic structure doctrine as the order has, in effect, encroached upon the area reserved for legislature.

“The high court order also circumvents the basic structure of the Constitution as it tramples upon a subject matter (creation of tribunals related to education) which exclusively falls within the domain of the legislature,” the petition filed by the state had said.

The top court said, “No doubt if the high court found that the legislation concerned was not valid on account of the limited scope of judicial review available under Article 226, it could have set aside the legislation. But by an interim order, it could not have stayed the operation of the statute.”

As the suo moto proceedings are still pending before the high court, the top court order added, “We set aside the order (of March 3, 2021) and ask the high court to decide the petition on its own merits.” The top court clarified that the stay it granted will remain until the matter is finally resolved.